Portugal‘s Goncalo Ramos does have the world in the palm of his hand right now and, having shone so bright on the biggest stage in the game, may have done enough to secure his future as an elite footballer....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
Ramos announced himself to the global footballing public on Tuesday night with an outstanding World Cup performance against Switzerland.
The striker, who was a relative unknown before last night, was given the thunderous task of filling the boots of a certain Cristiano Ronaldo, who had been relegated to the bench.
In a World Cup, round-of-16 clash against a more than handy Switzerland side, Ramos would have been forgiven for wilting under the pressure, but instead, he stepped up and produced the performance of a lifetime.
Having played a grand total of 33 minutes for Portugal prior to the Swiss clash, his introduction was a baptism of fire but, in the right circumstances, fire refines.
Born in 2001, Ramos began his footballing journey in the youth systems at Benfica, joining the club at the tender age of 12.
Ramos began to catch the eye in the Portugal age group sides as he clinched the prize for top goalscorer at the U19 European Championships in 2019.
His semi-final hat-trick against the Republic of Ireland was a particularly noteworthy performance.
He made his debut for the first team in the 2021/22 season but initially struggled for minutes as he competed with Darwin Nunez.
However, as a versatile player who can ply his trade across the breadth of the front line, Ramos started to force his way into the team on a more regular basis.
Ramos became Benfica’s second youngest scorer in the Champions League knockout stages when he netted against Liverpool at Anfield.
Unfortunately for Benfica, it wasn’t enough to prevent them from crashing out of the tournament in a 6-4 aggregate loss.
He has, however, been in much more prolific form this season, scoring a valuable hat-trick in the Champions League qualifying rounds before contributing another goal to haul the Portuguese side into the round of 16.
As a result, Ramos has bagged 14 goals and six assists in 21 games this season – including seven goals in his past six league appearances.
The youngest man to score a World Cup knockout stage hat-trick after Pele
Finishing second to Pele in any competition is no slight whatsoever. Romas’ hat-trick against Switzerland saw him make the podium for youngest knock-out treble scorers. First player to score a hat-trick on first World Cup start since Miroslav Klose.
Goncalo Ramos also saw his name lit up alongside one of the all-time great World Cup goal-scorers as he became the first man to bag a treble on his first World Cup start since German hitman Miroslav Klose did it in 2022.
It took Ramos just 17 minutes to open his World Cup knockout tally – something his captain Cristiano Ronaldo is yet to achieve despite this tournament being his fifth World Cup.
Portugal are well-stocked with promising attackers, but Ramos’ performance against Switzerland vaults him into the conversation to start regularly moving forward – even with AC Milan star Rafael Leao also pushing for a long-term place.
