Goncalo Ramos was unequivocal. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd score a hat-trick on my first World Cup start,” said the striker after the 6-1 defeat of Switzerland on Tuesday that booked Portugal's place in the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
The 21-year-old's state of shock was understandable; he made his senior international debut only in the middle of last month. Ramos would not, in all probability, have made Fernando Santos's 26-man squad without injuries for Diogo Jota and Pedro Neto and the international retirement of Rafa Silva prior to the tournament. And yet there he was at the end of the night at Lusail Stadium – Portuguese football's latest sensation.
On top of all that, Ramos has ushered in what the Portuguese media have dubbed the “AC (After Cristiano) era”. Portugal served up what has been described as their best performance since Santos was appointed coach in 2014. The kid from Olhao, in the south of the country, stepped into star man Cristiano Ronaldo's shoes with such aplomb it is hard to imagine him surrendering his newly won place in the side.
An upturn in fortunes
Perhaps the most striking aspect of Ramos's sudden emergence is that as recently as the middle of this year, he was not guaranteed a starting place with his club, Benfica, after months spent in the shadow of Uruguayan centre-forward Darwin Nunez.
As the summer progressed it was rumoured the youngster did not fit into the plans of new coach Roger Schmidt, and that he would leave the Estadio da Luz before the UEFA Champions League group phase.
Those suggestions proved unfounded and by the time Portugal's players convened for their final preparations for Qatar 2022, Ramos had compiled better statistics than any other forward in the squad, with 21 goals since the start of the year. He found the net again after coming off the bench in the final warm-up match, against Nigeria, providing a sign of things to come.
Ramos's nose for goal is well known at Benfica. He made history in 2020 as the first player to score for four of the club's teams: the first team, reserves, U-23s and U-19s.
With his goals this season, Ramos is showing why he is nicknamed Pistoleiro – which translates as Gunfighter – in Lisbon. He was formerly deployed in an attacking midfield position, in hindsight a ploy that clearly delayed the predatory forward's breakthrough on the European and international scene. After all, this is a player who evidently knows his way around the box.
“There are two things about him I really like: he's great at finding space to receive the ball and he's a finisher,” said Antonio Simoes, a legendary member of the Portugal side that finished third at England 1966 and now a commentator. “Obviously, he can get even better, but he's always going to score goals with the quality he has. He's a player with a huge amount of potential.”
With an average of a goal every 28 minutes in the tournament, so far – he assisted Raphael Guerreiro's strike against Switzerland, to boot – Ramos is expected to start Saturday's quarter-final against Morocco, when he will adhere to the mantra he's followed since bursting through at Benfica in his bid to unsettle the World Cup's tightest defence.
“My job in the box is to believe in every move.” states Ramos. As he has shown at Qatar 2022, that belief is unshakeable.