And new! Gonçalo Ramos became the ninth newcomer to Paris Saint-Germain this summer on Monday. The 22-year-old striker is on loan for €20m from Benfica, with an almost obligatory purchase option of €45m. Portuguese international, he could quickly gain weight in the PSG attack.
There is a “good in everything but excellent in nothing” side to Gonçalo Ramos. A quality that stands out? Perhaps the aerial game, where he combines size (1m85), relaxation and timing. At 22, Ramos is physically mature. Enough to take on a pivotal role that Kylian Mbappé rejected in Paris last season. Fixing, weighing in, playing with his back to goal, Ramos can do it. Even at the top level in the Champions League? Too early to tell.
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Author of 27 goals in 44 matches with Benfica last season, Ramos retains room for improvement at the finish, where the advanced stat of expected goals (expected goals) confirms that he is slightly underperforming. His sense of position and his weak left foot, which is not really one, help him to compensate.
Technically, he’s not a great dribbler (yet), but is ball-friendly enough to combine in small spaces. “He is probably more of an attacker who participates in the construction, who creates spaces for others, who participates in the game”, deciphered his teammate Bruno Fernandes during the 2022 World Cup. Above all, Ramos is a generous player, at the colossal defensive volume. Benfica offered one of the best pressings in Europe and the Portuguese was not innocent of it.
It was on Tuesday December 6, 2022 that the planet discovered Gonçalo Matias Ramos. A native of Olhão, a Mediterranean city in the southeast of the tourist region of the Algarve, Ramos was to be Portugal’s 26th man in the Qatari World Cup. For his fourth selection, he was preferred to Cristiano Ronaldo at the forefront of the attack against Switzerland, in the round of 16. A shock, as the fivefold Ballon d’Or seemed, despite disappointing performances, untouchable.
The coach, Fernando Santos, did not regret his bet. Ramos scored a hat-trick: a daring left shot under the bar, a well-cut cross at the near post and then a one-on-one past Yann Sommer. Victory of Portugal by K.O. (6-1). Renewed without success in the quarter against Morocco (1-0 defeat). Portugal’s Roberto Martinez has since taken over from Santos, Ronaldo has returned to the starting lineup and Ramos has returned to the bench.
“Now it’s up to you to write the history of Paris Saint-Germain.” It is with these words that Pedro Miguel Pauleta, former top scorer in the history of the club (109 goals), welcomed Gonçalo Ramos, who says himself a fan of two former legendary scorers of the Parisian club. : Pauleta and Zlatan. He will be the 17th Portuguese to wear the PSG jersey. In the current squad, they are 5: Nuno Mendes, Renato Sanches, Vitinha and Danilo, 32, a locker room executive and dedicated to taking Ramos under his wing.
Gonçalo Ramos is, unofficially, PSG and Ligue 1’s most expensive player this summer. Unofficially because, for reasons related to financial fair play, Paris welcomes him on loan against 20 M €. Various Portuguese sources talk about a purchase option automatically exercised if PSG qualify for the 2024-25 Champions League. Barring a cataclysm, this will be the case, and Ramos will thus have cost €65 million. It may be necessary to add 15 M€ of bonuses linked to its performance.
After a goal, Pauleta ran with open arms in reference to his nickname, “the eagle of the Azores”. Gonçalo Ramos, he mimics pistols with his fingers, pretending to blow on the barrel. The reason is bewilderingly simple. “I like the far west and western films,” he explained after his hat-trick during Portugal-Switzerland, without further details. With the prospect of the departures of Mbappé and Neymar, there may be a need for a new sheriff in Paris.