Once again Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon have produced another top talent to follow in the ranks of Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ricardo Quaresma, Nani and Miguel Veloso. The newest homegrown star is their attacking midfielder Joao Moutinho who is at the centre of a bidding war between a number of the biggest clubs in Europe.The 21-year-old is already captain of his club side (the 2nd youngest player to ever do so) and a regular in the Portuguese national team. He also played in all 4 of Portugal’s Euro 2008 matches (3 starts). Press reports earlier this summer suggested Everton’s David Moyes had stolen a march on the rest of the interested clubs by preparing a bold £16million raid on Sporting. However, now Chelsea are being strongly linked to the player who played under Felipe Scolari in the national set-up, according to website http://www.footballpools.com/.
However, Manchester United, Arsenal and most recently Barcelona are also casting admiring glances at the player. He has a proven track record at every level of club and international football. He made his Sporting first team debut at 17 and was brought into the national side at 18. It’s only since the 2006 World Cup that the youngster is now regarded as one of the key players in the squad.
In his first season in the Sporting first team the club reached the Uefa Cup final before losing out to Russian side CSKA Moscow. However, by beating 2 English clubs in that run, Middlesbrough & Newcastle, he was brought to the Premier League’s attention and his progress since has been monitored very closely. Despite being a creative player he has shown great consistency belying his age. Moutinho has made 108career League appearances (105 starts) for Sporting and scored 13 goals. He has also won 17 caps (1 goal) which, considering the type of player he is and the abundance of attacking talent which is produced by his nation, is impressive.
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