Promised and fulfilled. Rúben Amorim had warned after the elimination of the Portuguese Cup against Varzim from Liga 3 that Sporting had to start betting again on the youngsters of the house. And in Saturday night’s win (3-1) with Casa Pia, it promoted the debut of two more under-20s – Chico Lamba (19) and Mateus Fernandes (18).
Since taking charge of the lions in March 2020, replacing Jorge Silas, Rúben Amorim has already released 13 under-20s (under 20s). A sports policy that took over the day it was presented in Alvalade, together with President Frederico Varandas: “Our goal is to appreciate the club, its training. We want to have the best school in Portugal again to honor talents.”
After the collapse with Varzim, and after saying that it was necessary to start a new cycle like in his first year at Alvalade – “You have to think very carefully again, because we have to go into another cycle and do what we in the first year, with talented youngsters” – Amorim called on six children in the first training session last week to work with the main team: Diogo Pinto (goalkeeper), Chico Lamba (central), Rodrigo Ribeiro (attacker), Afonso Moreira (winger), Mateus Fernandes (midfielder) and Renato Veiga (midfielder/midfielder).
Against Casa Pia he immediately gave two a chance. Chico Lamba came on for Marsà 46 minutes into the game and Mateus Fernandes came on for Uruguay’s Ugarte 78 minutes into the game. January, which made it very clear that the bet was on the silver of the house, in this case on talents from the Academia de Alcochete .
“I’ve dreamed of this for as long as I can remember playing. It was a long-awaited moment. We’ve always had great support from everyone. The Sporting team is very well insured, we have great players,” said Mateus Fernandes afterwards. the game. “I was calm and prepared for this moment. I had a complicated injury at the beginning of the season, but this makes it all worth it. It was important to win this game,” said Chico Lamba.
From Nuno Mendes to Inácio
The bet on young people started as soon as he took over the team, from March 2019, with four children in the main team: Nuno Mendes, Tiago Tomás, Joelson and Gonçalo Inácio. In the following season, marked by winning the national title, he kept his bets and added three more names to the list: Eduardo Quaresma, Dário Essugo and Nazinho.
Essugo made his debut on March 21, 2021, becoming the youngest player ever to play for Sporting’s main team, aged just 16 years and six days, surpassing the records of Santamaria (16 years, 11 months and 12 days), Marco Caneira (17 years and one day) and Joelson Fernandes (17 years, four months and three days).
Born in Lisbon and a young international for Portugal but with Angolan roots, Dário Essugo never represented Sporting’s junior, under-23 or B teams before his debut in the main squad, jumping straight from youth to senior.
Last season there were under-20 bets on three more footballers: Goncalo Esteves, Rodrigo Ribeiro and Spaniard Marsà. And already this season, with only 10 rounds completed in the championship, three young under-20s have already earned Amorim’s trust: Ghanaian Fatawu Issahaku and the day before yesterday, with Casa Pia, in a match related to the 10th round of the I Liga , Chico Lamba and Mateus Fernandes.
The player released by the Leonine coach under the age of 20 and most used is by far the centre-back Gonçalo Inácio, with 84 matches played and seven goals scored. This is followed by striker Tiago Tomás (66 games), now on loan to Stuttgart, of the German I League, and Nuno Mendes, left-back who went to PSG on August 31, 2021 in the latest market shutdown – on a season-long loan, but with a mandatory purchase option worth 40 million euros, which was exercised at the end of last season.
Source: DN
