‘Flaco-Roque’ duo start 2026 at Palmeiras with eyes on the World Cup | OneFootball

The year for the duo Flaco López and Vitor Roque at Palmeiras was marked by many goals. The Argentine, in his fourth season with the Verdão, was the team's top scorer in 2025 with 25 goals, while Roque was the second top scorer with 20. Both improved their performance, especially as a duo formed from the second half of the year.

World Cup Expectations

Even with an end to 2025 below what was presented between August and October, the duo starts 2026 as indispensable starters for Abel Ferreira's team. Proof of this is that it was from the duo that both were called up for their national teams.

Flaco experienced his first call-up to the Argentine national team. In 2025, he played three matches wearing the jersey of the Hermanos and provided a beautiful assist for Mac Allister's goal in Argentina's 6-0 thrashing of Puerto Rico in October. Roque, on the other hand, was on Ancelotti's list for the November call-up, the last of the year. Both are looking forward to competing in the World Cup in June.

Duo Emerged in August

The duo emerged after the elimination against Corinthians in the Copa do Brasil at Allianz Parque. In the following match, coach Abel Ferreira changed the alviverde team's scheme and tested a new formation against Ceará with Flaco and Vitor Roque forming an attacking duo. Against Universitario-PER in the Libertadores, the two were fielded as starters, and the result was incredible: Palmeiras' 4-0 thrashing, with two goals from Flaco and one from Roque. From there, the duo was established.

Top Scorers and Valued

Flaco López was Palmeiras' top scorer in 2025. After 64 matches played, the Argentine scored 25 goals, five more than Vitor Roque. Palmeiras saw the sporting return of the Argentine player in 2025 – Verdão invested 7 million dollars (about R$ 35 million at the time) in Flaco, coming from Lanús, back in 2022.

Meanwhile, Vitor Roque had a heavy investment of 25.5 million euros (R$ 154 million) for 80% of the rights, in a deal with Barcelona at the beginning of this season. In January, he was pointed out as the most valuable player in the world playing outside Europe, according to a study released by CIES, the Football Observatory. Valued at 85 million euros (almost R$ 536 million at the current exchange rate), the forward holds the 46th position in the released ranking.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.