Portuguese in the “Big 5”: goal 100 took a while, but arrived in April | International football

It took longer than usual to wait, but April finally saw the total number of Portuguese goals in the five main European leagues (Germany, Spain, France, England and Italy) reach one hundred. The round mark was signed by midfielder André Almeida, who on April 15 scored the only goal in Valencia’s triumph at Osasuna, on matchday 31 of the Spanish La Liga.

The 100 goal barrier seems increasingly difficult to reach, now that Cristiano Ronaldo has gone to break records on another continent… last season it was signed on April 2nd by Rafael Leão (Milan); in 2021/22 Gonçalo Guedes (then at Valencia) celebrated this milestone on the 13th of February and in 2020/21 the “centenary” was recorded on the 2nd of February, by João Moutinho (for Wolverhampton). In four seasons, it takes almost two more months to score 100 goals – and in 2021/22 the championships even stopped to compete in the World Cup…

The last few weeks, however, seem to have improved the aim of Portuguese footballers playing in the big leagues… before André Almeida scored his 100th goal, on April 15th, Bruno Fernandes (twice) and Raphael Guerreiro, both 13th of that month, and Rafael Leão, at 14, counted up to the hundred. After that, Diogo Jota and Gonçalo Ramos (2) celebrated on April 21st; Bruno Fernandes scored twice in the 24th; Toti Gomes and, again, Gonçalo Ramos scored on April 27th.

These three goals in consecutive Ligue 1 matches allowed PSG’s young striker to take the lead among Portuguese scorers in the “Big 5”: the “gunman” has 11 accurate shots in the French league, to which he adds another three in others competitions, for a total of 14 in the season for his club. Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Jota even scored more than Gonçalo Ramos in the season total (both have 15 goals), but have not yet exceeded a dozen in the Premier League.

Only four players repeat their presence in the “Portuguese top 10” at this point in the season, compared to last season: Rafael Leão, João Félix, Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva. In 2023/24, names like Beto (who left Italy for England), Daniel Podence (who went to Greece), Nuno Tavares (previously at Marseille, now at Nottingham Forest), Rony Lopes (this season at SC Braga) will be left out. ), Ruben Neves (who is now at Al Hilal, in Saudi Arabia) and André Silva (he left Leipzig for Real Sociedad).

Conversely, Gonçalo Ramos (who was previously at Benfica), Diogo Jota (less conditioned by injuries at Liverpool than last season), Vitinha (who is increasingly playing a leading role at PSG), another Vitinha (the former -SC Braga scored three goals for Marseille – the first two, in the first two rounds of Ligue 1, marked the beginning of the scoring for the Portuguese – and another for Genoa, where he transferred in the winter window), Dany Mota (Monza) and João Palhinha (Fulham).

With 107 goals scored by the end of April, the Portuguese contingent in the five main European leagues does not have much time to avoid the worst Portuguese record in recent seasons in terms of finishing. And the numbers have been steadily decreasing: there were 175 goals in 2020/21, 163 in 2021/22, 139 last season.