Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer has performed miracles many times to save his team, but he could only watch and admire as Goncalo Ramos kept banging the goals to ease Portugal into the World Cup quarter-finals. The Benfica starlet was well-known to fans in his homeland, but after the breathtaking hat-trick – everyone knows his name.Gonçalo Ramos has only played 85 minutes of World Cup football. 😮 pic.twitter.com/C8jlj20eV6— Squawka (@Squawka) December 6, 2022 Pistolero is one of the most exciting strikers on the international scene. It is no coincidence that Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Manchester United were already on his trail in the last transfer window. However, Benfica director Rui Costa wouldn’t let him leave. After Darwin Nunez’s departure to Liverpool, Costa knew Ramos would be essential to his team’s attack. And the 21-year-old goalscorer duly obliged. His performances this season, including the admirable showing in Qatar so far, so his market value skyrocketed to $80 million.Son of a footballer, he revealed that his father inspired him to come up with his trademark celebration. After every goal, he blows into the tips of his fingers, as gunslingers do in the old westerns. And like a true Pistolero, his shooting brought considerable changes in the Wild West – or in the Middle East in this case. The attention of Portuguese reporters shifted from the bench of Cristiano Ronaldo to Goncalos’s explosion of talent.##NAJAVA_MECA_6874287##Goncalo was born in Olhao, the “pearl of the Algarve”, a small town in the far south of Portugal. A debut in the final phase of the World Cup that went like his every debut so far. When he takes the field for the first time in a new competition or with a new shirt, he scores. He did it with the Benfica first team (brace in 2020) and the Portuguese national team (a goal and an assist in a friendly against Nigeria). This year he started Benfica’s life after Nunez with a hat-trick in the Champions League qualifications against Midtjylland. He didn’t take much time to show that he can be trusted. Goncalo’s already got 14 goals and six assists in 21 games this season.Ramos started off as a midfielder, but his goalscoring instinct was so strong that it made it a waste to play him anywhere else but in the attack. Since his days in Benfica’s youth side, he has shown the essential trait needed for a world-class goalscorer: positioning and that rare sense of where the ball will drop. He earned the nickname, the Sorcerer of Olhao because rebound and second balls always fell directly on his foot, ready to be tucked away in the net. Gonçalo Ramos came into this game against Switzerland as Ronaldo’s replacement and had only played 33 minutes of international football. He needed 67 minutes to score the first hat-trick of this World Cup. Wow! Parabéns. He is just 21 years. pic.twitter.com/Crs1MblSqj— Usher Komugisha (@UsherKomugisha) December 6, 2022 At 21 years and 169 days, Ramos is the youngest to score three goals in a knockout tie in the World Cup since Pele in 1958 and Albert in 1962. It’s also something that his captain Cristiano Ronaldo is still to do in his long career.”I don’t think I thought of doing all this even in my wildest dreams. I don’t know what to say. I’m living a dream. I’m enjoying this moment, I don’t know if I’ll be a starter again, but it’s fine. Everything goes so fast. Cristiano Ronaldo is our captain, and he always has a word of encouragement for everyone, including me. He is one of my idols, like Ibrahimovic and Lewandowski.”Goncalo has got three idols – and all the talent to get close to them.
