Vitinha will be the PSG playmaker in the Champions League final, but his only goal for Wolves came to Chorley in the FA Cup | Football news

When Vitinha scored his only goal in English football, official attendance was zero and the opposition was Chorley on the sixth level. On Saturday, there will be 70,000 in Munich and hundreds of millions of people watching in the Champions League final.

There remains a curiosity that the Portuguese playmaker, the promptur-in-chief of Paris Saint-Germain, therefore at the house among the glamor of Paris, spent an otherwise banal season in Wolverhampton during a pandemic. He only made five departures in the Premier League.

But there was that The goal of the FA Cup, struck 30 meters away. Captain Conor Coady de Wolves was just behind. “It was the one you think,” don’t shoot “,” said Coady Sky Sports. “He was miles away. But the ball has just moved and left and all that.”

The way of the strike – it turned out to be the winner – means that Vittinha has at least a darling memory of his time in England. He since said that despite his frustrations for lack of play, he would not change the experience. It was the construction of characters.

“When we arrived in Chorley, we got off the bus and we had to walk in a park to enter the ground, all this kind of thing,” recalls Coady. There was not even a place in the locker room outside for the full team. The submarines had to change in the sponsors living room.

“It was great. I loved it. It was an excellent game for people who are not from this country to understand what the cup is. I think it opened a lot of eyes because we obviously had a lot of Portuguese guys, players from many different countries.

“Sometimes these matches are the most difficult matches because the players of the Premier League can be swallowed a little, cannot get on the ball as they wish. But he did. He received the ball in tight areas. You understood what he was all about this day.”

Everyone understands what Vitinha is these days. He finished more passes in the Champions League of this season than any other player, controlling the PSG tempo. For Coady, it’s not a big surprise. “We saw this every day in training, guy.”

The wider world had only seen Vitinha’s gifts at the time. He had not even started a championship match for Porto before his arrival on loan from Wolves. But Coady remembers the quality that Vitinha has shown in these sessions, including an unusual feature.

“I loved the way he took lots of touches. He was still on the ball. In our country, we always tell you that the children to move the ball quickly, right? Pass and move. Suddenly, we had this child from Portugal who just took a lot of keys but I never lost it.

“In training, he was in the lead. Each day. Each time you play it in five sides, he was incredible. And what you see for PSG now is what he was when he was at Wolves. We all see him now, we all experience it, but at the time, he didn’t really play.”

The problem that Vitinha had was similar to the problem encountered by Morgan Gibbs-White at the time, another that has since flourished with Molinine. The midfielder’s posts were held by Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves, probably the best Wolves players.

“Listen, we always knew he was a better player. The problem was that Moutinho and Neves were ahead of him.” Vittinha only made two departures in the Premier League before May, both in a more advanced role alongside this duo, which did not necessarily suit him.

As he made this start trio at the end of the season, the die was sunk. Nuno Espirito Santo still believed in Vittinha, but the coach himself evolved this summer and his replacement Bruno Lage was not so sure. In addition, the Vitinha was impatient for more.

“You have always known that he was preparing to play. Sometimes, young circles in the field who come and have players like Moutinho and Neves in front of them, they get along in a way thinking that their time will come. He was dying to play, desperate.

“It was important for someone like me, like the other guys from the locker room, Joao and Ruben, just to make him move forward. I am always the same now, whether you are captain or you are not, you try to make sure that people feel welcome. And we did it.

“But he was never a bad person to have. This is an excellent example for others. It was so difficult for him at Wolves because you had two incredible players in front of him and he was obviously only a young boy. But look at what he does now.”

What he does now is amazing. His PSG coach Luis Enrique said that Vitinha is the best in the world in his position, while the great Thierry Henry went rather further than that, saying that the midfielder practiced a different sport for everyone.

“This midfielder PSG has, this team that PSG has, with the way it plays, it suits him on the ground,” explains Coady. “He has an incredible manager at Luis Enrique and I think we see the best of him. And listen, he will be better.”

Coady points out his stable family life – “He settled very quickly, he has children at a young age” – and a dedication to his profession. He is a player who is exceptional on the ball but who has still won the ball in the third of the middle more than anyone too.

On Saturday, the 25 -year -old Portugal International can cap his season with a triumph of the first Champions League for him and for his club. If PSG does it, the Vitinha will undoubtedly have played a decisive role. And it will be a moment for him to think about his trip to get there.

A product of Porto, his transfer to Paris Saint-Germain clearly raised his game. But maybe he will also remember his season in the Premier League. Far from the highest point in his career, but a key step, however. From Chorley to the Champions League.

“I think he would say that it was a really precious experience. Let’s be honest, coming in the Premier League at such a young age, no matter who you are, it will be a massive experience for you. But I think it would come back with good memories.

“It’s just a shame, really, because this goal against Chorley was most that Wolves fans saw Vitinha in a game situation. But we all knew it at the time – he is a remarkable footballer. And I like to look at him now.” Coady is certainly not alone in there.

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