PortuGOAL Figure of the Week: Francisco Trincão takes his sensational club form to the international arena | OneFootball

‘Good things come to those who wait’ is the fitting saying for Francisco Trincão’s recent intervention for the Portugal national team with his first goal contributions in his ten appearances coming in Sunday’s victory over Denmark, made extra special given that the match was played in his home stadium of the José Alvalade.

Few countries boast the undeniable talent of the Portugal squad. However, it was the 25-year-old with 108 official minutes for Portugal – merely 32 minutes in the last four years – who was the difference-maker against the Danes.

PortuGOAL’s Figure of the Week changed the destiny of this encounter with two excellently taken finishes leaving Kasper Schmeichel helpless. Kevin Fernandes reports.

Portugal advanced to the UEFA Nations League semi-finals after an exhilarating 5-2 victory over Denmark at the Estádio José Alvalade, overturning the first leg 1-0 deficit cemented in Copenhagen.

The Seleção das Quinas did it the hard way once again, providing never-ending suffering to Portuguese sympathisers worldwide. This seems to be the way forward with Roberto Martínez, who grated against a journalist in the post-match press conference: “You suffered? Well I enjoyed it. Because this is football. There are no easy games. Have you seen the other quarter-final games? Football is this. Denmark played a good game. We were superior. But if you don’t like to suffer, I don’t think you should follow football.”

The decisive individual performance came from the continuously resurging talent, Francisco Trincão.

From Braga to Barcelona – the struggle

Born in Viana do Castelo, Francisco’s journey in football started at local side Vianense before passing briefly through Futebol Clube do Porto.

His best moments early in his career would come for Sporting Clube de Braga, where at 16 years of age, Trincão made his debut for Braga’s B team, his first appearance in senior football. His quality and maturity provoked his journey to Turkey with the first-team for a European blockbuster fixture, not before asking for parental authorisation to travel as a minor, of course.

João Aroso, former Braga B coach, outlined an important detail about youth development to Portuguese publication Tribuna Expresso. “The impact of relative age is very important in football. It's not easy to find players born in the second half of the year who are at the top level. To survive in football, being born in the last few months of the year, you have to be of a much higher quality than average. We need to emphasise this to warn people, because it’s a situation that’s very difficult to resist. Trincão, if you look closely, is almost a year younger (born on 29 December) than the 1999 players who were born at the start of the year. And in one year you develop and learn a lot.”

Trincão’s trajectory was never facilitated, not even at youth level.

Messi understudy

His breakthrough at first-team level was gradual and reserved, playing six matches in the 2018/19 Liga Portugal campaign, bursting onto the scene in the following year with 8 goals and 6 assists in 27 appearances. The ‘Minho Mahrez’ did enough to be considered an alternative to the one and only Lionel Messi at Barcelona. One of the greatest honours in world football, equally one of the most demanding and unjust.

The astronomical release clause of 500 million euros (only Messi and Antoine Griezmann were shielded by clauses greater, at the time), there was no patience or freedom for the reserved boy from Viana. Disheartened with odd, inconsistent, often dead minutes on 32 occasions as a substitute (all competitions) in his second season as a top professional. With Ousmane Dembélé (signed for almost five times the price of Trincão) and one of the greatest of all time in the pecking order ahead of him.

From an average of 10,000 fans in the stadium with the expectation of bridging the gap to the traditional Big Three in Portugal to the practically unrivalled demand of the Blaugranas.

Lacking continuity and stability, it’s difficult to transition from being grounded to getting lost in new stratospheres. The irrefusable offer brought everything that prejudices young talents with the trajectory of Trincão.

Wolves misstep

His experience in Wolverhampton was equally negative for a depleted Trincão lacking confidence and motivation. The solution? A return home, to the club in his heart, with a lot of patience, care, nurturing and hard work behind the scenes.

What do Bruno Fernandes, Pedro Gonçalves, Pablo Sarabia and Francisco Trincão have in common? Since 2000, they are the only players to score 10+ goals in Liga Portugal for Sporting, barring centre-forwards.

Goals against Marseille, Frankfurt, Benfica and his former stomping ground Braga (where he also assisted). A hat-trick to make the difference against Casa Pia, and this barbarity committed against Estoril-Praia’s defenders, in his first season.

This, despite the perceived narrative of banality. The cerebral creator, constantly criticised for a lack of intensity, for the dithering style of play which frustrates when the player is somewhat inconsistent. Penalised for failure, not encouraged for multiple successful actions and high potential. Despite bright spots, in Trincão’s early months at Sporting he was still a player in recovery, a shadow of his true self still withheld by former inhibitions, still evolving physically and mentally.

Many doubted whether we’d see the Francisco Trincão of his Braga days.

Those who doubted his ability to make an impact for Portugal: may your apology be as loud as the disrespect. The footballing nation notorious for unexpected heroes.

Those who followed his 48 appearances (18 goals scored) across the youth ranks of the Seleção could have seen it coming. He was top goalscorer in the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, alongside Celtic’s Jota Filipe, as Portugal were crowned champions.

The irreverent, elegant creator

One man who never doubted him was Rúben Amorim. Sporting’s coach persisted with Trincão while he was still re-finding his feet in the Portuguese capital, and was richly rewarded. Since halfway through last season Trincão has been magnificent, maintaining his form for nigh on a season and a half. In 2024/25 he has 11 assists (league leader) and 8 goals in 26 appearances, cementing his most productive season regarding direct goal contributions, and we are only in March. The greatest creator of big chances in Portugal since 2024.

Francisco Trincão levitates in progression as a fluid creator. Cerebral, as his technique and intelligence supersede elite physical characteristics, and due to his elite body and ball manipulation, coupled with his defensive contribution and positioning (often dropping as the third man in midfield).

Trincão is naturally gifted to create chaos in opposition defences through exquisite technical operations, ranging from pin-point in-swinging crosses, fluid combinations, surgical rupturing passes or mesmerising dribbling and close control.

Any player capable of great individual and collective moves like this can never be considered ordinary or average. With or without known limitations.

The numbers place Trincão in the upper echelons of creators in European football: 2.47 completed dribbles, 4.98 touches in the opposition penalty area and 2.27 chances created per match.

Out-of-the-ordinary footballer frame

More positional in his manipulation of space, Trincão knows where to operate rather than rushing aimlessly to recover position. His atypical frame (184cm, leggy build) pays off in recovery (6.10 duels won, 1.12 tackles made and 0.92 ball recoveries in the final third per Liga Portugal fixture). Any fragility is perceived from his lean appearance, as Trincão has grown to appreciate the struggle, growing in intensity and developing that combative, competitive mentality.

His evolution is down to mental and physical work, as the technical tools were always present. The plentiful goals, now including for his country, are the cherries on the cake for the PortuGOAL Figure of the Week.