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Portugal’s under-21 national team will face Azerbaijan and Scotland in qualifying for the European Championship, and coach Luís Freire announced a squad Friday featuring several new faces, including Gonçalo Moreira and Daniel Banjaqui, promising young talents from Benfica, as well as first-time call-ups Mateus Mané and Noah Saviolo.
Freire first addressed the inclusion of Mateus Mané, a versatile midfielder with Wolverhampton. “There’s always a desire that needs to align. A strong willingness to play for Portugal and experience the country in one’s heart, and our belief that he can be an asset to us. Both of those desires need to be present. Then, there’s the bureaucratic level, figuring out if it’s possible to call them up. And everything fell into place. Mateus Mané has a great desire to represent the Portuguese national team. He was born in Portugal, played at Barreirense, and spent eight years here before moving to England. He feels our country in his heart and wants to represent our national team, in this case with the under-21s, and we feel that, given his current form, it’s a good time to bring him into the fold. He’s a disruptive player who can play wide or drift into the middle, and he’s strong in one-on-one situations. Mateus is Portuguese and wants to play for Portugal,” Freire stated, also touching on Saviolo, a Portuguese-Belgian winger who has been performing well at Vitória de Guimarães.
“The main merit is that clubs are investing in these players. Noah has been a regular starter at Vitória de Guimarães. Only by giving young players this exposure can we publicly evaluate them. Diogo Monteiro has also been playing regularly at Arouca. Saviolo has Portuguese roots; his grandparents are Portuguese. He could have chosen Belgium, but the player feels that Portugal, where he has been playing for several years, is the right fit. He wants to represent the national team, and in one of the questions I asked him, he said that Portugal is in his heart and is what he wants to play for. These are small steps we are taking. They are young and are in a certain context. They really want to feel our country and represent our national team,” the under-21 coach continued.
Regarding the two talents from the Benfica academy, Freire echoed the sentiment, though he spoke individually about each of them.
“First of all, I want to say that we are proud and happy for Rodrigo Mora and Mateus Fernandes being called up to the senior national team. The inclusion of Gonçalo Moreira is a well-deserved reward for a great season. 19 goals and 10 assists in various competitions… That’s a lot of goals and a lot of assists. He has very good characteristics to help us with our passing game, he can build positions and receive into the box with quality. He’s playing regularly for Benfica B, trains regularly with the first team, and is in the Youth League. It makes sense to bring him in, and we hope he will help us right away,” he said, about the attacking midfielder who can also play on the wings.
Luís Freire described Banjaqui as “one of the best young right-backs in Portugal.” “In the case of Banjaqui, the call-up also rewards a trajectory. Just three days ago, he was man of the match in the Youth League, providing two assists, and he has also made his debut for the first team at Benfica, where he has had a high performance in the minutes he has played. He participated in the under-17 European Championship and World Cup last year. We need to look to the future and create more solutions for more positions. Daniel is one of the best young Portuguese right-backs, and it makes sense to bring him in,” the under-21 coach concluded.
