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If FIFA is willing to open a "one-goal fame award of the year", 21-year-old Portuguese center Gonzalu Ramus could be crowned king in 2022.
Before the start of the Qatar World Cup 1/8 final, which was sparked by his starter and Cristiano Ronaldo's substitute, Ramus, who was born on June 20, 2001, gained only 181,000 followers on Instagram. Perhaps only Benfica hardcore and football gamers are familiar with the 2019 U19 European Youth Championship Golden Boot. But in Portugal's 6-1 Swiss match, Ramus took his scripted one-goal fame to the extreme, and nearly 150,000 new fans flocked to the Internet after he became the first player in 20 years to score a hat-trick on his World Cup debut in 20 years (and the first player in 28 years to score four goals in a single World Cup).
Now, Gonzalu Ramus, who was restored from Portugal No. 26 to Benfica No. 88, is already 500,000 bloggers on Instagram, and the business and doubling of the amount of interaction with virtual currency is not unusual, and the way he continues to shine after the World Cup in Qatar is naturally no longer that hat-trick or "Ronaldo successor" label. Despite occasional muscle injuries, his fiery, red-hot athletic form has put him into the ranks of Europe's first-line strikers.
In midweek, Benfica swept Club Brugge 5-1 at home (7-1 aggregate over two legs), reaching the milestone of reaching the last eight of the Champions League for the first time in two consecutive seasons, and Gonzalu Ramus, who has only 23 Champions League games (including eight qualifiers), is once again the men's number one. With two goals and one assist for the first time in his Champions League career, the Portuguese striker is not only the youngest Benfica player to score in the Champions League this century at 21 years and 260 days, but also the second youngest person to score three goals in a single Champions League knockout match in 20 years, and the youngest Portuguese in the history of the Champions League knockout stage.
His perfect solo show in first-half stoppage time, that flashing shot into the net, was like moving Benfica's Academy dance class to the Stadium of Light – and there really was no one to stop him. So far this season, Ramus has scored 15 goals in 19 appearances in the Portuguese Premier League, three goals in eight Champions League games (four goals in four qualifying matches), and a total of 23 goals in 34 games in all competitions, ranking first in the team.
After the game, Rafa Silva, who was completely impressed by his juniors, specially gave the best player trophy he won to Ramus. On this night, the top scorer of the 2019-20 Youth Champions League triggered cheers at the Stadium of Light, sending former Chinese Super League coach Schmidt to the last eight of the Champions League, and making more top giants salivate.
You know, in the week before the opening of the World Cup in Qatar, the target of scandal for Ramus by the Portuguese newspaper "The Record" was still Brighton, who is good at exploring potential stocks. And now, with the Portuguese striker opening his goal account in the knockout stages of the Champions League, the clubs that have appeared in the same frame are Manchester United, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid.
Rumor has it that despite the fact that the "German transfer market" has assessed Ramus's worth of only 40 million euros, Benfica management is still full of confidence that the liquidated damages clause of up to 120 million euros in the existing contract will not be a dry decoration.
At Benfica's training base in Seixal, Ramus's photo has been put on the Wall of Honor - even if the professional championship trophy has not yet arrived, his furious shining in these months is already the latest façade of the "European Black Shop".
It is said that the annual operating cost of Benfica Academy is 10 million to 12 million euros, which covers more than 500 players and hundreds of coaches in the huge youth training system, nearly 100 staff in the field of health and psychology, as well as 9 stadiums, player dormitories and gyms... The expenses of Europe's top youth academy are naturally expensive. Of course, the well-functioning Benfica club has nothing to worry about, with the cashing of Darwin Núñez and Enzo Fernandez, and now with the appreciation of Ramus, they just copy another academy and what is the difficulty of them - perhaps, the next champion of the "European black shop" is no longer Ramus.
The author of this article: Chen Dingrui
The image comes from the Internet