As an ambitious and competitive 17-year-old scoring for fun while training with the Benfica B team, Goncalo Ramos’s older teammates were left asking how was he always there at the right moment.
Four years on, it’s a question his former Benfica teammate and now Macarthur FC striker Anthony Carter found himself asking again on Wednesday morning after the 21-year-old’s three-goal heroics in a World Cup round of 16 match against Switzerland following his promotion to the starting side at the expense of the one-and-only Cristiano Ronaldo.
Carter, who played and trained with Ramos while at the Portuguese club in 2018 and 2019, described the 21-year-old as “an extraordinary player”.
“He got promoted from the under 19s team to the B team,” he said. “When he first arrived he was actually a number eight, and the coach put him as striker. And … he just performed. He’s an extraordinary player, very, very good.”
“Goncalo, he’s always in the right positioning, the right timing,” Carter said. “He’s got that smell.”
“I think it’s an instinct thing. Of course, he works hard for it. You have to train for it, but it’s the smell of the goal, where the ball’s going to drop, the moment where the cross comes in [that is particularly impressive],” he said. “If you watch a lot of his goals this season at Benfica, a lot of them are in the box, and the way he enters the box … it’s about smell and sense.”
Macarthur FC striker Anthony Carter trained with Portugal’s Goncalo Ramos.Credit: Justin Setterfield/Getty; supplied
“I sent him a message after he scored saying congratulations. And he was that humble to reply as well.”
The culture at Benfica was competitive and that drove Ramos’ quest for superiority, Carter said.
“The atmosphere is really good in the change room but once you get onto the pitch it’s very, very competitive,” he said.
“This is my experience from the two years I was there. Nearly every day, there was a new kid training with us. From the under 19s there would be a kid, sometimes from the under 18s coming up on the B team. And us boys would go two or three times a week to the A team. It’s just really very competitive.”
Carter will need to draw on his own experience of competition this weekend, too: standing in his way is another Portuguese star, Nani.
The 2016 European Championships winner will travel to Sydney with Melbourne Victory to face Macarthur on Sunday afternoon. The Bulls are in the top four after two wins, two draws and two losses from their opening six matches.
“Everyone’s fit and ready to play against Melbourne Victory,” he said. “Everybody needs to come out and support us as well, because that’s what makes it great.”
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