Diogo Gonçalves: scoring for fun in Youth League
Thursday, October 22, 2015
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He has seven goals in three European games this term, including two hat-tricks, for rampant Benfica – introducing the group stage's top scorer, Diogo Gonçalves.
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If Benfica have been the team of the UEFA Youth League season so far then the Portuguese side's winger Diogo Gonçalves is the standout performer. Three games into the 2015/16 group stage, the 18-year-old has a competition-leading seven goals to his name – a haul shaped by hat-tricks in the Eagles' record victories against Astana (8-0) and Galatasaray (11-1). So, what do we know about the player blazing a trail at the top of the scorers' chart?
Name: Diogo António Cupido Gonçalves
Date of birth: 06/02/1997
Nationality: Portuguese
Club: Benfica
UEFA Youth League debut: 16/09/14 v Zenit
Competition appearances/goals: 11/9
• Born in Beja, in southern Portugal, Diogo Gonçalves attracted Benfica's interest while playing for Ferreiras during the 2007/08 campaign. He moved to Lisbon for the following season and has developed into a quick, tricky left-winger equally adept on the opposite flank.
• His role model is Benfica's Argentinian international Nicolás Gaitán. "Gaitán plays in the same position as I do," said Gonçalves. "I like him very much."
• In May 2014 he helped Portugal win all three of their group games at the UEFA European Under-17 Championship in Malta. England ended Portugal's run in the semi-finals.
• Eight days after turning 18 he made his debut for Benfica's B team in the Portuguese second tier. In 17 league appearances, 11 of them starts, he has scored two goals.
• He renewed his contract with the Eagles at the beginning of this year, saying: "I'm very happy. It's another objective I have accomplished in my career. It's very good for me and my family. This is my boyhood club and my dream is to get to the first team."
• It appears to be a matter of when, not if, Gonçalves breaks the record for most goals scored by an individual in a UEFA Youth League group stage. He has managed two more than Munir El Haddadi did for Barcelona in the inaugural 2013/14 season and has already matched the total Chelsea's Dominic Solanke – like Munir, another of UEFA.com's stars of 2014 – set last term.