The king is dead, long live the king.
It was always going to take something special to overshadow Cristiano Ronaldo after he was dropped for his country’s World Cup thrashing of Switzerland, but Goncalo Ramos’s sensational hat-trick ensured he was the man on the front and back pages in Portugal this morning.
Leading Portuguese newspaper A Bola ran a picture of Ramos on their front page, hailing the 21-year-old Benfica striker as ‘The Demolisher’.
Ramos is also known as ‘The Wizard’, and he produced a magical performance last night, as Portugal thumped the Swiss to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.
For his first trick, Ramos picked up the ball inside the penalty area, turned and smashed it into the top corner. For his second, he nutmegged the goalkeeper with a near-post flick. The third was a cool, dinked finish. Not bad for a player making only his fourth appearance and full debut for Portugal.
Ramos announced himself on the world stage last night, but those in Portugal have long thought he was destined for the top.
Benfica were happy to sell Darwin Nunez to Liverpool in the summer because they felt they had a ready-made replacement in Ramos. He is the top scorer in the Portuguese league this season with nine goals and helped Benfica qualify for the knockout stage of the Champions League.
He was compared to Germany forward Thomas Muller as he came through the Benfica academy, with his Portugal team-mates last night stressing Ramos is much more than just a goalscorer.
“He has got that striker smell to know where the ball is going to land to finish the action, but also he’s a great lad,” said Bernardo Silva.
“He’s a worker. A worker in terms of always trying to do what’s best for the team and not what’s best for him.”
Bruno Fernandes echoed Silva’s words, describing Ramos as “a build-up striker that creates space for others”, and that much was clear last night.
Portugal’s attack looked so much more fluid and mobile with Ramos instead of Ronaldo. It was a brave call from coach Fernando Santos to drop the 37-year-old, but one of the most complete team performances so far at the World Cup justified his decision.
The biggest compliment you could pay Portugal was that they looked like Brazil, who just 24 hours earlier had dismantled South Korea.
How Ronaldo, with his 195 caps and 118 goals, reacts now will be fascinating. Santos dropped Ronaldo after his petulant reaction to being substituted in the defeat by South Korea, but he has been playing poorly and Portugal looked better without him.
Ramos is now certain to start Saturday’s quarter-final against Morocco and Ronaldo looks set to play a supporting role in his final World Cup.
Will his ego stop him being a team player? Ronaldo celebrated with his team-mates last night, but he was not content being a bit-part player at Manchester United.
Time waits for no one, and age is certainly catching up with Ronaldo. Attention will remain on Ronaldo ahead of Saturday’s quarter-final, but a talented young Portugal team looks to be moving on without him.
