The surprising secret behind João Neves’ aerial power | OneFootball

Trained by Luis Castro at Benfica, João Neves (21 years old), midfielder for Paris Saint-Germain, impresses with his dominance in aerial duels despite his stature. In L’Équipe, the FC Nantes coach (Neves’s former youth coach) details the reasons for this success, combining exceptional athletic qualities with outstanding game reading. The source emphasizes the intelligence in the way he attacks space.

Castro: “I said when João arrived that he would be one of the most dominant players in the air”

Luis Castro is not marveling out of nostalgia: he describes a player whose development confirms a mechanism already visible at a very young age. João Neves, 1.74 m tall, obviously doesn’t have the height of Ligue 1’s defensive towers. Yet, his strength lies elsewhere. His former coach explains that he built himself on a rare athletic foundation for a midfielder: dense quadriceps, locked abs, explosive footwork that allows him to jump very quickly without losing balance.

But above all—and this is where Castro insists—Neves possesses that ability to read trajectories that makes all the difference: he attacks the space a split second before the defender, sees the movements unfold, and times his jump perfectly. It’s less a physical duel than a mental one, where timing becomes a weapon. It’s this intelligence in movement that allows him today, at PSG, to regularly beat players measuring 1.86 m or more, and to become a completely unexpected aerial threat.

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