With all the excitement surrounding Euro 2020, it’s easy to let club traffic slide under the radar.
Atletico Madrid recently secured the signing of Portuguese striker Marcos Paulo from Fluminense, where the 20-year-old penalized a five-year deal with La Liga champions after leaving his boy child on a free transfer.
Any of you football boss boffins out there are probably desperate to upload your latest save after just mentioning a Brazilian prodigy, but before you go out with ten year old offers to a lighthouse you probably never heard of before reading this article, here is all you need to know about the young ahead …
Marcos Paulo has long been named a future star / Miguel Schincariol / Getty Images
€ 45 million (£ 38.5 million) at 17 years old!
The forward had been at Fluminense since he was 11 years old and he was obviously very thoughtful about the club. The Brazilian giants hit a huge clause in the head before he had barely even made a first team.
Since then, his stock has only continued to rise when he has crushed a number of quality notions, it’s just a shame they failed to agree on the terms of a new deal and lost him for nothing. A little silly really.
We do not exaggerate when we say MANY teams have been announced with a move for Marcos Paulo.
If we were to list all the sites that are rumored to be interested in him at some point in the last three years, we would be here all day, so let’s just say pages from Ligue 1, Serie A, La Liga and the Premier League have all been linked to him.
It sounds like Atletico have done some brilliant business in getting him on a free transfer.
The reason we say that he “seems” to have chosen to represent Portugal before Brazil is that there is still time for him to change.
Until he makes an older appearance – something he does not yet do – Marcos Paulo can still change, but at the moment his loyalty to Portugal.
He was born in Brazil and is eligible to play for Portugal through his Portuguese grandfather, but in the early days of his career he made a number of appearances for the Brazilian youth side.
But since 2019, he has represented Portugal and has made a handful of appearances for his troops under 18 and under 19.
One of the best parts of the child’s game – and probably one of the main reasons why Diego Simeone was so interested in him – is his versatility.
Even at just 20 years of age, he has been known to play in a number of positions above the front line, although his natural position is to the left of a front three where he can utilize his speed and dribbling ability.
With that said, he tends to be deployed as a striker at the international level and his quality in front of the goal means that he can more than fulfill the role when needed.
Without a doubt, we will see how good he is at right back after a few months under Simeone.
Diego Simeone is said to be keen on keeping him at the club rather than lending him / Soccrates Images / Getty Images
Despite hype surrounding the 20-year-old’s apparent ability, Atletico had been expected to loan him out for a season after his arrival.
It seems to have changed after the news that Vitolo has moved on loan to Getafe, and Marca now reports that Simeone is keen to integrate the youngster in the first team and that he will probably have his chance to impress before the season with a number of the first team player still missing in international service.
