Mercato Mercato – Ruben Neves (Wolverhampton) joined Al-Hilal at 26: route of a career already ruined by Jorge Mendes

An indelible memory for him. At the dawn of the 2014-2015 season, Julen Lopetegui fell in love with a romantic profile: a slender 17-year-old kid who breathes football. At FC Porto, his name is already well known: Ruben Neves. Arrived at 8 years in the Portuguese club, he climbed all the levels at a staggering speed to the point of knocking on the door of the first team. The Spanish coach opens wide to him. The youngest scorer in the history of Porto, the youngest Portuguese player to participate in a C1 match, compared to Sergio Busquets or Andrea Pirlo for his technical finesse, the kid enters directly into the prestigious Top 40 of the Guardian which lists the nuggets of tomorrow.

However, it is now common knowledge that everything that agitates Portugal ends up reaching the ears of Jorge Mendes. The super-powerful Portuguese agent obviously gets his hands on the prodigy, manages to set a release clause at 40 million euros and promises Ruben Neves mountains and wonders.

The giants of the old continent then… Wolverhampton

At the time, the one who would become the youngest captain of FC Porto, and perhaps the biggest talent trained at the club in the 21st century, was in everyone’s sights. Juventus, Liverpool, AC Milan, Barcelona, ​​PSG, Real Madrid, Chelsea: his list of contenders is a football lotto of the biggest clubs in the world and there is no doubt that the esthete will become a known face at Champions League evenings in the years. who come. Missed. Since 2017, he has never had the chills of the C1 again. Because Jorge Mendes decided otherwise.

All in his desire to establish himself permanently in the Premier League, the agent pulls off a feat: sending one of the most watched European prospects in Europe to… the Championship. At Wolverhamption, the Chinese decision makers of the Fosun consortium decided to trust Mendes to go back to PL and build a competitive team.

The Diogo Jota example

The promise is simple: to be exposed in a Premier League club to get a place in a Top 6 club. On paper, it works. Thus, the example Diogo Jota, bought 45 million by Liverpool in the summer of 2020 ends up convincing that the Mendes scheme is a sporting and financial success. For Four Four Two, the Portuguese winger explained the genesis of the case. “I have to admit I wasn’t necessarily keen on the idea of ​​playing for Wolverhampton when my agent first told me about it.he confessed. He ended up convincing me and keeps repeating to me since ‘you see how right I was?‘”.

A good example, however, does not make a rule. While Jota has joined the European elite, Neves remains in the waiting room. Every summer, it is announced everywhere, Arsenal, Barcelona, ​​Chelsea, Manchester United. Each summer, he stays at Wolverhampton where he will play for six years and where the love between the club’s fans and the player is frankly mutual. It’s hard to call Ruben Neves a mercenary. He is in fact a prisoner of the Mendes system.

In 2023, the case is heard. At 26, after so much loyalty for Wolves, Ruben Neves will leave. FC Barcelona is a declared candidate upon his arrival. Jorge Mendes, well established in Catalonia, tries various arrangements to complete the operation before noting, like many, that the Barcelona coffers are far too empty to hope for a movement.

How long will he stay there? Maybe two years, unless the hypothesis of a loan to Newcastle – owned by the PIF, Saudi public investment fund – does not materialize. In which case nothing would make sense in a market that already does not have many. It doesn’t matter, to tell the truth: six years later, Ruben Neves has still not tasted the joys of the C1. At 26, his career already looks like a mess. Because, basically, he did not respect the only request he put forward last May, when he said goodbye to Wolverhampton. “I never hid it, I want to play the Champions League“, he advanced. Jorge Mendes decided otherwise…