Standing 20 yards out in front of the Wolves faithful at the famous Molineux, Ruben Neves curled in a wonderfully struck free-kick into the right side of a diving Jordan Pickford to level it up for the Wolves, announcing the entry of yet another Portuguese sensation to the Premier League. A goal and an assist in his debut is not a shabby start to the life in the Premier League.
FC Porto
Ruben Neves was born on the 13th of March 1997 in Mozelos in the town of Santa Maria in Portugal and started his footballing journey at the age of 8, joining the FC Porto Academy. The extraordinary talent in the young Neves was quite visible as the young Portuguese moved through the Porto age group teams, evening spending a season on loan at the Padroense FC in the 2012/13 season.
Aged 17 the young prodigy was expected to bypass the U19 team and get slotted into the reserves side. As luck would have it, present Real Madrid manager and former FC Porto manager Julen Lopetegui surprisingly called the young midfielder into the pre-season squad, on July 2014, after another first-time callee Mikel Agu got injured prompting the Nigerian to be moved out of the squad.
The Spaniard, former U19 and U21 European winning Spain manager and a promoter of youth, was quickly impressed by the 17-year old so much so that Neves was included into the first team squad for the Primeira Liga, without playing any matches for the reserves as well as the U-19 side.
The young 17-yeard old, defying expectations of the coaches of his age group, made his debut on the 15th of August against C.S. Mortimo in a 2-0 victory over their opponents. The same match against Mortimo also saw the young Mozelos town based lad capitalising his chance of scoring his first professional goal in the 11th minute of the match, making him the youngest ever goalscorer for the Dragons. 5 days later the young Neves saw himself playing in the grandest of all club tournament in the world, UEFA Champions League, as he started against LOSC Lille in the play-off round, breaking the record set by a certain Cristiano Ronaldo as he became the youngest ever Portuguese to play in the Champions League aged 17 years 5 months and 5 days old.
The young Neves was one the up in the national front too, as the young midfielder got his maiden U21 call-up for Rui Jorge's side on the 29th of August, still aged 17. Neves was already on the national radar after picking up a combined total of 43 appearances for the U16, U17, U18 age group teams combined. The young Neves had to wait till October for his first U21 goal as he scored against the Netherlands in a thrilling 5-4 home win against the Oranje in the play-off round of the 2015 UEFA U21 Championship.
The first professional season under FC Porto for Neves ended with the young holding midfielder making an impressive 37 appearance, with 24 of them coming in the league 9 of them in Europe and the rest in the cup matches.
The second season started early with Neves on international duty as he went to the 2015 UEFA U21 Euro Championship in the Czech Republic, the youngest member of the squad as well as the youngest ever Portuguese to debut in the tournament (aged 18), ending the tournament as runners-up to Sweden in a team comprising of present-day Manchester City midfielder, Juventus defender Joao Cancelo and 2016 European championship winners Joao Mario, Rafa Silva, William Carvalho and Raphael Guerreiro.
The second season at the Estadio do Dragao was even better for the young Neves as he became the youngest ever player to lead a side in the Champions League as he captained the Dragons to a 2-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League while also becoming the youngest player in FC Porto history to play 50 matches, as he played in a 2-1 victory over Pacos de Ferreira. The second season ended with Neves having played 38 matches with 22 of those appearing in the league, 8 in Europe and the rest in cup matches. On the national front, Neves finally made it to the first team squad as he was called in as a replacement for the injured Joao Moutinho, finally making his debut for the national team against Russia in a 1-0 loss to Russia in Krasnador on the 14th of November 2015.
The third season for Neves started with a change in scenery as Julen Lopetegui was removed from the managerial spot with present-day Wolves manager and former FC Porto Champions League winner Nuno Espirito Santo taking the place of the Spaniard. The change in manager saw the starting XI position of the gifted holding midfielder changed with Portuguese international Danilo Pereira being preferred ahead of the then 19-year old. 18 appearances with 9 of them from the bench, was much more than what the impressive holding midfielder could take as he made his decision to change from his much beloved Porto to another club.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
With Liverpool, Manchester United and almost all the top clubs vying for the signature of the holding midfielder, Wolverhampton Wanderers did the unthinkable as they signed the midfield prodigy on the 8th of July 2017 with super-agent Jorge Mendes engineering a move for the young Neves to the second tier club for a Wolves record fee of 15.8 million pounds making him the costliest player ever to bought by a Championship side in England.
A familiar face of former boss Nuno Espirito Santo greeted the young Portuguese along with former Porto teammate Diogo Jota to the Molineux. The gulf in class between the championship based players and the new Wolves midfield lynchpin was very evident as Ruben Neves marshalled his new team to the 2017/18 EFL Championship, his first ever major trophy with club or country, making a total of 42 appearances in all competition while also scoring a career-high 6 goals, all of them coming from outside the penalty box. Recognition soon followed for the Portuguese midfielder as he was shortlisted in the Championship Player of the Season, EFL Young Player of the Season as well as being named in the Football Manager Team of the Season as well as the PFA Championship Team of the season.
The second season for Ruben Neves with Wolves has coincided with the Wolves back in the Premier League after a gap of more than 3 years. With all the media attention as well as the worldwide audience watching each Premier League match the 21-year old has risen up to the Premier League challenge so far notching up a goal and an assist in his very first Premier League match against Everton while also producing impressive performances against Manchester City and West Ham.
The last time a much-hyped Portuguese teenager entered the Premier League the whole world stood an watched the formation of one of the greatest ever players to play the game. The holding midfielder may not have the flair, the charisma or the AWE of the boy that came from Madeira but surely has the right ingredients to light up the Premier League and fill in the gaps left by former great midfield generals of the Premier League.
If this is the start that RUBEN NEVES has, the Premier League and the whole world is surely looking for more fireworks from the 21-year old.
 |
| Source: Getty Images |
Ruben Neves was born on the 13th of March 1997 in Mozelos in the town of Santa Maria in Portugal and started his footballing journey at the age of 8, joining the FC Porto Academy. The extraordinary talent in the young Neves was quite visible as the young Portuguese moved through the Porto age group teams, evening spending a season on loan at the Padroense FC in the 2012/13 season.
Aged 17 the young prodigy was expected to bypass the U19 team and get slotted into the reserves side. As luck would have it, present Real Madrid manager and former FC Porto manager Julen Lopetegui surprisingly called the young midfielder into the pre-season squad, on July 2014, after another first-time callee Mikel Agu got injured prompting the Nigerian to be moved out of the squad.
The Spaniard, former U19 and U21 European winning Spain manager and a promoter of youth, was quickly impressed by the 17-year old so much so that Neves was included into the first team squad for the Primeira Liga, without playing any matches for the reserves as well as the U-19 side.
 |
| Source: Daily Mirror |
The young Neves was one the up in the national front too, as the young midfielder got his maiden U21 call-up for Rui Jorge's side on the 29th of August, still aged 17. Neves was already on the national radar after picking up a combined total of 43 appearances for the U16, U17, U18 age group teams combined. The young Neves had to wait till October for his first U21 goal as he scored against the Netherlands in a thrilling 5-4 home win against the Oranje in the play-off round of the 2015 UEFA U21 Championship.
The first professional season under FC Porto for Neves ended with the young holding midfielder making an impressive 37 appearance, with 24 of them coming in the league 9 of them in Europe and the rest in the cup matches.
The second season started early with Neves on international duty as he went to the 2015 UEFA U21 Euro Championship in the Czech Republic, the youngest member of the squad as well as the youngest ever Portuguese to debut in the tournament (aged 18), ending the tournament as runners-up to Sweden in a team comprising of present-day Manchester City midfielder, Juventus defender Joao Cancelo and 2016 European championship winners Joao Mario, Rafa Silva, William Carvalho and Raphael Guerreiro.
The second season at the Estadio do Dragao was even better for the young Neves as he became the youngest ever player to lead a side in the Champions League as he captained the Dragons to a 2-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League while also becoming the youngest player in FC Porto history to play 50 matches, as he played in a 2-1 victory over Pacos de Ferreira. The second season ended with Neves having played 38 matches with 22 of those appearing in the league, 8 in Europe and the rest in cup matches. On the national front, Neves finally made it to the first team squad as he was called in as a replacement for the injured Joao Moutinho, finally making his debut for the national team against Russia in a 1-0 loss to Russia in Krasnador on the 14th of November 2015.
The third season for Neves started with a change in scenery as Julen Lopetegui was removed from the managerial spot with present-day Wolves manager and former FC Porto Champions League winner Nuno Espirito Santo taking the place of the Spaniard. The change in manager saw the starting XI position of the gifted holding midfielder changed with Portuguese international Danilo Pereira being preferred ahead of the then 19-year old. 18 appearances with 9 of them from the bench, was much more than what the impressive holding midfielder could take as he made his decision to change from his much beloved Porto to another club.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
 |
| Source: FourFourTwo |
A familiar face of former boss Nuno Espirito Santo greeted the young Portuguese along with former Porto teammate Diogo Jota to the Molineux. The gulf in class between the championship based players and the new Wolves midfield lynchpin was very evident as Ruben Neves marshalled his new team to the 2017/18 EFL Championship, his first ever major trophy with club or country, making a total of 42 appearances in all competition while also scoring a career-high 6 goals, all of them coming from outside the penalty box. Recognition soon followed for the Portuguese midfielder as he was shortlisted in the Championship Player of the Season, EFL Young Player of the Season as well as being named in the Football Manager Team of the Season as well as the PFA Championship Team of the season.
The second season for Ruben Neves with Wolves has coincided with the Wolves back in the Premier League after a gap of more than 3 years. With all the media attention as well as the worldwide audience watching each Premier League match the 21-year old has risen up to the Premier League challenge so far notching up a goal and an assist in his very first Premier League match against Everton while also producing impressive performances against Manchester City and West Ham.
 |
| Source: Metro |
If this is the start that RUBEN NEVES has, the Premier League and the whole world is surely looking for more fireworks from the 21-year old.
Comments
Post a Comment