Portugal Saint-Germain has been the delight of the capital club since 2022 and the arrival of Vitinha and Luis Campos intends to continue this tradition. As we revealed to you, the Red and Blue have made contact with West Ham’s young right-handed attacking midfielder, Mateus Fernandes. Aged 21, the OlhĂŁo native trained at Sporting Portugal before taking advantage of his season on loan at Estoril (2023-2024) to discover the Premier League straight away at Southampton, then at the Hammers. The Londoners have also paid no less than €44 million to afford the new Lusitanian international. And if Luis Campos fell for Fernandes, it’s no coincidence. Summoned for the first time to the national team by Roberto Martinez during the Seleção das Quinas gathering in the United States last March, Fernandes only played five minutes against the selection coached by Mauricio Pochettino, but that doesn’t matter.
In the national team, Mateus Fernandes took advantage of the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo to get his chance. Which did not necessarily displease him, without wanting to clash with the star of Al-Nassr. “It took some of the pressure off me! If he had been on the team I would have felt more pressure. He is the greatest player in my country and in the world. But I hope next time I can play with him.”. The presence of the midfielder has in any case validated the trajectory taken by his career. “I think Mateus Fernandes is a very good example of training in Portugal. Not just in terms of infrastructure, but in terms of players. He is a player who was loaned to Estoril, he had a good season there, he went abroad. He continues to grow, then he has a transfer of more than €40 million. He has become a very important player in the best championship in the world. The doors of selection are open for players like Mateus Fernandes,” Martinez declared on March 27. Three days later, his coach at West Ham, Nuno Espirito Santo, was delighted with this call-up. “I’m very happy for him. He deserves it, he’s having a fantastic season. He works a lot, he has a lot of talent, he is a very disciplined person. I hope it helps the selection. »
Tozé, a mentor he has under his skin
In Portugal, the emergence of the Hammers player is welcomed from all sides. And for good reason. Before joining the SCP training center, the native of OlhĂŁo logically discovered football… at Olhanense, already with the desire to show himself. “He was smaller than the others, because he played in a higher category, and yet he was our best player. He was very combative, very competitive, and he quickly understood that he had to give 200% in training to then be able to give 100% in matches. One of his coaches, unfortunately deceased today, TozĂ© (real name AntĂłnio Paulo, editor’s note), said that Mateus was an old man in a child’s body, he showed such maturity.had confided one of his former coaches, AmĂlcar AraĂşjo, in 2021. TozĂ©, a coach who remained very present in Fernandes’ life. Recently, the Sun confided that a t-shirt bearing the image of TozĂ© was still present in the Hammers locker room. And that’s not all.
The player’s only tattoo depicts the moment the coach put the captain’s armband on him when he was a child. “This tattoo means a lot to me. At each match, I put one of his jerseys in my place, because, in my eyes, it is my lucky charm. He was my first coach when I was a kid and he took me to training. He was my football teacher. When I was ten or eleven, he died of cancer. We went to the hospital and two days later he died. It was a difficult moment for us, his players. I talk to him every day, every evening. That’s why I try to be his little boy, like before, and I try to make him proud of me. I talk to TozĂ© so that he can give me good advice, so that he can help me and my family. So that he supports me and I support his family. When I enter the field, I ask him to show me the way, the right path, to support me during the match, to send me positive vibes”the player confided to the tabloid. Having left to join the Sporting CP training center in 2016, the midfielder also left his mark on the Lisbon side. Among the Green and Whites, Mateus Fernandes was quickly designated as the successor of another Fernandes: Bruno, the star of Manchester United, also trained by the Leões…. while he had joined the Lisbon club at the base to play as a defender before being repositioned in the midfield.
World Cup objective
“I like to take charge of the game, make assists and score goals. Now I try to position myself closer to the goal, and I even watch Bruno Fernandes’ movements to try to shoot like him. He came by the training center to encourage us and see how everything worked”declared the player to Sports TV. A sign of very promising potential, Mateus Fernandes signed his first professional contract at the age of 16 in 2020, and the following year, he was already playing with the U23s, the team with which he started on April 3, 2021 against rival Benfica (0-1 defeat), under the orders of a certain Ruben Amorim. “It’s a source of pride. I wasn’t the only one, other teammates also made their debut like Dário Essugo. Many others are not here, but would fit right in. That’s what Sporting is all about: giving talented young people the chance to flourish. Coach Amorim gave us the opportunity to show what we are worth, as did the coaches of the B team”confided the player after his match.
Since then, Mateus Fernandes has made his way and, like his idol Bruno Fernandes, he chose to go to England to flourish, even if it was not a cakewalk. “It was difficult at Southampton. We lost almost every match. But even when you are losing, you have to show character, you have to show your qualities. And if you want to go to the World Cup, you have to be professional every day.”he declared at the beginning of the month to Recordbefore confiding that he was doing better at West Ham, despite the 17th place in the standings occupied by the Hammers. “I lived alone, so I learned all this on my own. Now I live with my girlfriend, my trainer is Portuguese and all that helps me a lot”. No one yet knows if PSG will introduce him to a new championship, but the nugget Mateus Fernandes has well and truly taken off.
