″ I was with my wife at Lourenço’s training. I saw the match in the club bar ″

Manuel Ramos, Gonçalo’s father, was at the training of his other son, in Ferreras, where he saw it all

While his son was shining in the biggest competition in the world, Manuel Ramos was watching his other son, Lourenco, who turns 11 the next day and was training at the Benfica Training Center in Ferreras, Albufeira. “It could be the dad’s DNA, they’re all football inclined,” he joked in an interview with Radio Observador. Manuel Ramos was also, at times, a striker, with stints at Salgueiros and Farense, among others. “I was with my wife after Lourenço’s training and watched the game in the club’s bar, with other parents, all happy, but in a special way. It was a great night,” he said.

He guarantees he only found out Gonzalo would be in the starting line-up when the squad was announced. “We never asked him. We wish him well, have fun and have fun,” he explains, but the family video call after the game, the day before yesterday, had a special flavor. “We exchanged ideas, our things, but we told him to enjoy the moment,” says Manuel Ramos, assuming the hat-trick “exceeded expectations, I never thought it could happen.”

Things “are going well, both at club and in the national team,” but the son is no substitute for Cristiano Ronaldo. He adds, “There are no alternatives, we must take advantage of the opportunities. If he remains on the bench in the next match, he will respond in the same way; he turns into action.”

Rui Bento, the coach who welcomed Goncalo at the age of five in Olhanense, is taking over O JOGO who suspected the title before the official confirmation arrived. “I was hoping that Fernando Santos would give him the starting line-up, for two reasons: because of the history of the jackets, the day before, and because they had not been used against Korea. Then he joined the question about Ronaldo, even I had very fervent hopes that he would play and I had to say that to many friends he explains. “There are no words, and at Olhao they speak of nothing else,” adds Roy Pinto. Morocco concludes by saying, “Of course, with Gonzalo on the team.”