How the austere Seleção becomes cool again thanks to his youth

João Félix is ​​the future star of the Portuguese team -

On Wednesday, while France played do anything against Finland, Portugal played games with Andorra.

Certainly, passing 7 pawns in a friendly before an otherwise more complicated match offers no guarantee - we are in a good position to know that - and of course, it was a foam opponent, but in the history of the Seleção this is not entirely trivial.

The European champion has always had a knack for taking his feet in the carpet against opponents supposedly really weaker.

And we are not talking about the group stage of Euro 2016. In 2004, the Scolari team had achieved the feat of drawing a 2-2 draw against Liechtenstein.

In 2007, another draw against Kuwait.

Portugal's last somewhat disgraceful result dates back to 2015 and a home loss to Cape Verde.

Five years, it's starting to take a while, the cataclysms are lessening: now, like any great football nation that respects itself, Fernando Santos' players abuse their authority by slapping big slaps on the little ones.

Even the youngest go there, by the way.

Croatia took four on the peninsula, Sweden including five round trips without planting a single one.

All while playing a very pleasant football - except against France which makes him feel good.

Four years after its homage to Greece by Otto Rehhagel in our regions, is the Seleção rising to the top of the hype?

The example of Wolverhampton

To answer the question, you have to go to the Midlands, England, and more specifically Wolverhampton.

Historical club but insignificant in its recent history, Wolves have become the antechamber of Lusitanian football.

A nice revenge on the colonization of the Algarve by the English orchestrated behind the scenes by Jorge Mendes, very close to the Chinese conglomerate Fosun which bought the club in 2016. Officially adviser to Wolverhampton, the super-agent has since brought back a slew of clients represented by its box, Gestifute, without the institutions of English football finding fault.

At the moment, the Wolves have nine Portuguese in their squad including Rui Patrico, Nelson Semedo, João Moutinho, Ruben Neves and Daniel Podence, all internationals.

And the worst part is that it works.

Nuno Espirito Santo's side - also Portuguese - returned to the Premier League and qualified for the Europa League, where they reached the quarter-finals.

As a thank you, the club has released this season a "third" jersey in the colors of the Seleção.

If some still doubted it, football is definitely the best Portuguese ambassador.

Nando's FC know exactly what they're doing with their new 3rd kit.

Wolves is temporary, Portugal is forever.

Wolverhampton CF call them Sporting Wanderers from now on.

Long live Seleção de Wolves.

pic.twitter.com/f7KqyNVlgw

- TheFootballist.

(@_TheFootballist) September 18, 2020

Wolves have also seen Diogo Jota, a new recruit in Jurgen Klopp's offensive army, who arrived in Liverpool with 45 plaques.

And the Reds are already getting their money's worth.

In 11 games, the 24-year-old striker has already planted 7 goals and sublimated the bright smile of his coach, who is full of praise.

“He's fast, he knows how to combine, defend, press.

[…] He is part of this incredible Portuguese generation of the moment, which has a lot of obviously very talented players.

In England alone, there are Bruno Fernandes, who arrived as emperor at Manchester United, Bernardo Silva or even Riben Dias (Manchester City).

And in Spain, there is of course João Félix, the famous generational crack who is born on the banks of the Tagus once every 15 years.

A good head of rival for Kylian Mbappé, that one.

In club as in selection, the young Portuguese are a hit

We stop there for the inventory.

Portugal play better because they form a plethora of very good young people.

Recently, the Portuguese have been European champions in U17 and U19 and vice-European champions hopefuls.

A consistency that promotes the construction of a golden generation, like the one experienced by Jorge Costa, former defender of FC Porto and ex-international, winner of the U20 World Cup in 1991 and semi-finalist of Euro 2000 with Figo and Rui Costa:

“In recent years, Rui Jorge [U21 coach] has done a great job with the youngsters, and it was the same for us with Carlos Queiroz in the late 80s. There has always been quality in Portugal but now , players have totally different means.

They have physical and psychological trainers from an early age, they are surrounded by super coaches who are themselves very well trained.

The Portuguese Federation opened a football city [in 2016] and that was a big step forward.

You have Clairefontaine, you are in a good position to know it.

And then we must also salute the work of the clubs.

"

Small paradox in this pool of rising stars.

Of the three historic formations (Benfica, Porto and Sporting), only one player will appear on Fernando Santos' scoresheet against France, the former Nantais Sérgio Oliveira.

However, these teams have never trained so many future very good players as evidenced by the record of the brand new Youth League, where Benfica failed three times in the final unlike FC Porto, winner in 2019. A way to very quickly to promote teenagers who sometimes go to big championships without really having known Liga Nos.

Porto won the Youth Champions League in 2019 - Kieran McManus / BPI / REX / SIPA

"The context is now much more favorable for young Portuguese, explained the former deputy of the Seleção, Leonel Pontes, during a discussion on Danilo Pereira, freshly arrived in Paris.

In the current configuration, a player like Danilo would not have had to go into exile in a minor league to have playing time and he would have landed much sooner in a club of the caliber of PSG.

"

All is not rosy in Portugal either, especially at the club level.

The level of the championship collapses dangerously because of an outdated economic model, for the moment without consequences on the work of the federation.

Jorge Costa: “The federation is doing a good job.

What you see today began with our generation.

This is all part of a process.

When we play Euro 96, we are still that team that qualifies once every 20 years for major competitions.

We first learned to always be present, then we played finals and we managed to win some.

Now, we are a respected, even feared team.

And fashionable, too.

Sport

France - Portugal: But by the way, did anyone really intend to win this match?

• Sport

• French football team

• Cristiano Ronaldo

• Portugal