In the midst of Gary Neville’s impassioned, Japanese-knotweed-infused, no-name-naming rant on Sky Sports a couple of weekends ago, there was a little nugget of genuinely golden punditry.
“Forget talent,” he said, “I’ve maybe, over the past 12 to 18 months, fallen into the trap of talking about, ‘Oh, they’ve got potential, they’ve got talent.’ Forget it.”
It’s something we are all guilty of. The temptation to look beyond the evidence in front of us and speculate about what a player might be able to do, based purely on natural ability, is sometimes too great to resist.
Neville, of course, was talking about the application of the Manchester United players – most notably Paul Pogba. But the phrase can be ascribed to other situations.
How they apply the talent they have, both in terms of work-rate and the tangible benefit they produce for their team on the pitch, is ultimately what players will be judged on. The likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, both possessors of a great footballing gift, are only the best because they employ that ability to devastating effect.
Which brings us to the subject of this article, João Félix, who according to some in his homeland is Ronaldo’s natural heir in the Portuguese national team.
Playing in the Primeira Liga, and without Benfica having faced a British club in their run to the Europa League quarter-finals via the Champions League group stage, Félix is the sort of player it is easy to hear about but less easy to lay eyes upon.
He has been linked to Juventus, Barcelona, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool. But is it premature hype? Is it speculation about what he might be able to do, based on talent alone?
A look at his season would suggest not. For Benfica in 2019, the teenager has stepped up at moments of genuine importance. He scored in the derby against Sporting and he scored against Porto in the match that put his side top of the league. He bagged a hat-trick and got an exquisite assist in the Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt, becoming the youngest player to score three in a game in European competition. True, his team eventually went out on away goals after going down 2-0 in the return leg, but the elegant young playmaker could hardly have done any more. This weekend, he was at it again.
A look at his season would suggest not. For Benfica in 2019, the teenager has stepped up at moments of genuine importance. He scored in the derby against Sporting and he scored against Porto in the match that put his side top of the league. He bagged a hat-trick and got an exquisite assist in the Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt, becoming the youngest player to score three in a game in European competition. True, his team eventually went out on away goals after going down 2-0 in the return leg, but the elegant young playmaker could hardly have done any more. This weekend, he was at it again.