PROFILE | Mathias Pereira Lage happy to play bit-part role in Brest’s unprecedented success | OneFootball

The only way to understand Brest’s achievements in 2024 is by engaging with a collection of the unlikeliest of heroes. The club have baulked at the trend within Ligue 1 of recruiting ever younger talent, and in the 2023/24 season, they had the third-oldest squad in the league. And yet, it was a team that beat the odds and shocked France with a historic third-place finish and automatic qualification to the league phase of the newly formatted Champions League.

Among the number of unlikely heroes, stands Mathias Pereira Lage, a flexible winger who can play several positions, and someone who has outside of a handful of appearances with the Portuguese U21s never truly threatened to step into the wider public consciousness beyond France, the country where he was born. However, the 2023/24 season would prove to be something different for Pereira Lage.

The winger was utilised largely as an off-the-bench option for head coach Eric Roy and started only 13 of the 33 matches he made an appearance. However, despite the limited starts, Pereira Lage was still heavily relied upon. He was an impact sub regardless of whether Brest needed to consolidate a winning position or search for a goal. Three goals and three assists marked a good return for the winger, with one of his strikes rescuing a point in a 2-2 draw with Paris Saint-Germain.

Pereira Lage happy in bit-part role

His role this season with the club experiencing European football for the first time in its history has not expanded dramatically from the previous campaign. And Pereira Lage remains Roy’s ace in the hole as he has made only six starts in 17 games but has scored twice including in the Champions League against RB Salzburg. It is a position that many other players might grow frustrated with but it is one that the winger appears happy to inhabit for Les Pirates.

Pereira Lage has never made a fuss about his position in the team and has never tried to strongarm his head coach into playing him more. As he told Le Télégramme in an interview, “I’ve never been a little sh*t. I don’t have that in me. Sometimes, at times I think I should be or at certain moments. But the truth is I’ve always been in a good mood, and enjoy living.”

For Brest, there is something about Pereira Lage that encapsulates the team. A player who is willing to work hard and take the opportunities he is given; an unlikely hero for an unlikely team.

GFFN | Nick Hartland