Joao Mario – Is This Calm, Assured Midfielder The Player United Should Be After?

Joao Mario – Is This Calm, Assured Midfielder The Player United Should Be After?

Where the profile of Renato Sanches, the Benfica teen, has exploded across Europe this season, the rise of Joao Mario, at 23, has been a slow, deliberate burn. But both have one thing in common: this summer they’ll compete at their first Euros with Portugal.

With Manchester United and Arsenal credited with serious interest in the midfielder, Joao Mario has only just come to the attention of fans around the world this season. But those inside Portuguese football insist he’s always been a sure thing.

Boasting almost 80 caps at underage level, Joao Mario’s emergence is an endorsement of the Portuguese football pyramid. From Sporting B, to a loan spell with Vitoria Setubal and now thriving under Jorge Jesus with Sporting’s first team, Joao Mario has steadily overcome every challenge thrown in front of him.


“Off the field, he’s exactly the same as he plays,” says Joao Mario’s brother, Wilson Eduardo, who also came through at Sporting and is now with Braga . “He’s very quiet, even on vacation he does not like big parties.

“How he plays on the pitch is the same.”

Wilson is convinced moving away from Sporting for his spell with Setubal was the making of his kid brother.

“He learned a different type of football,” the striker recalls. “He had to work harder in games.

“It’s a team that plays with a defensive-based organization, on the counterattack. Small teams with less power play like this. It was good for him.”

It was with Setubal that Joao Mario came to national attention. Such was the impact, that coaches up and down Portugal were telling anyone who’d listen that the lad was a potential world-beater.

Vítor Paneira was in charge of Tondela at the time and says of Joao Mario: “He is a player with talent. I was able to meet him, saw perfectly that he was above average. He has technical quality, is very clever, can easily read the breaking game and can make the final pass.

“These players need to play. I think it did him good to go to V. Setúbal. He grew. He learned how to play for a real championship.”

Moreirense coach Miguel Leal also saw plenty of Joao Mario when in charge of Penafiel.

“He showed great qualities in terms of reading the game and filling space. Plus he has great technical quality. You could see he had big potential.”

That potential, under the guidance of Jorge Jesus at Sporting, is now being realised. With scouts from United and Arsenal regulars at Sporting games since November, Joao Mario found himself in career best form as he won consecutive Young Player of the Month awards for January and February.

Against Belgium last month, Joao Mario, by his own admission, produced the best performance of his fledgling international career.

“My best career moment? Yeah, maybe,” he later said. “It is normal to improve from season to season and I am sure that the next time I play I’ll be even better.

“I just need to keep playing well for Sporting to make sure I am called (for the national team).”

Joao Mario admits the management of Jorge Jesus has made a difference. A natural, box-to-box power player, Joao Mario has been used often on the right-side of Sporting’s midfield by Jorge Jesus – to devastating effect.

“Of course, the more versatile you are, the more helpful to the team,” he says. “I’ve learned a lot playing on the right at Sporting. It’s helped me to grow up.”

And the influence of Jorge Jesus on that ‘growing up’?

“Yeah, definitely,” he smiles. “You can’t hide it.

But whether the pair will still be working together next season could be decided inside the halls of Old Trafford and Emirates stadium.

At Arsenal, a midfield clearout is underway, with Mikel Arteta, Tomas Rosicky and Mathieu Flamini all coming off contract. United, meanwhile, are yet to offer Michael Carrick new terms and there remains a long-term fitness cloud over Bastian Schweinsteiger.

The power and drive of Joao Mario would lift the quality of both teams and Paneira is in no doubt Sporting can make a fortune from a Premier League sale.

“I think he has everything. He is a young, but note that he’s a talent. He adds a lot of quality to midfield, to attack and knows how to defend.

“He has everything to be a Sporting reference and generate a big sale.”

Contributed by Chris Beattie of TribalFootball.com