Marcos Lopes

A very nice article from a New Zealand web site (The Dominion Post)

Quote:
“One of world football’s leading starlets is raring to go and ready to dazzle at Hamilton’s Waikato Stadium on Sunday.

Portugal’s Marcos “Rony” Lopes is expected to be one of the big stars of the 2015 Fifa U-20 World Cup, and will make his first appearance of the tournament against Senegal on Sunday afternoon.

Lopes, a product of Manchester City’s youth academy, and before that Benfica, has had a breakthrough season on loan at French top flight club Lille and has football scouts talking.

Expected to be the first real success story from Manchester City’s academy, Lopes is the club’s youngest ever scorer, having scored in a FA Cup victory over Watford at the age of 17 years and eight days.

His loan spell in France saw Lopes make 18 appearances, scoring three goals, and his return to Manchester City next season could see him added to the first team squad.

The performances he puts in during the world cup could have a bearing on that decision, and Lopes said his team are in top shape.

“The team is excited to start the competition. We’re all focused on our job, on what we have to do, and hopefully we’ll start well,” Lopes said.

“Every team in our group is a good team, so it’s difficult. To start with Senegal, they are a good team, but we trust in our team and believe we can have a good game and get a good result.

“Our mentality is to go game by game, to win every game and go as far as possible.”

Attack is the best form of defence for the Portuguese team, and Lopes said they plan to keep possession of the ball as much as they can.

“The other team can’t score when we have the ball, so we like to keep possession of the ball. That’s our style.

“This is a very confident team, we believe in each other.”

Nicknamed “Rony” because he was often spotted wearing a Ronaldo jersey when he was younger, Lopes will be Portugal’s central threat on attack.

But should opposing defences focus too hard on Lopes, Portugal have plenty of attacking talent and the knowledge of each others games to make the added space count.

Lopes said the bulk of the team have been playing together in national squads since they were 15, and this could be their last major tournament as a group.

“We’ve played together for years, so we have a close bond as a team,” Lopes said.

“When I was 15 and playing for Benfica I was playing with a lot of the players, and we played against each other all the time.”

Even though they now play for different clubs, nothing changes when they meet up and wear a Portuguese shirt.

“It’s so important to have that culture in the team. We love playing together.”

Get in to watch Lopes while you can. He looks set to be one of the future stars of the tournament.”
Ends
 
Looking good so far today. Interesting that the commentator is pronouncing his name not as lopez but lopes, as in sounds like mopes. He even said it was requested that he pronounced it that way.
 
citytill1die84 said:
IMO another year out on loan and this kid could potentially break through. Hope so anyway seems like a nice down to earth young lad with plenty of confidence.
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There is absolutely no reason at all for him to go back out on loan. He shouldn't have gone in the first place and if he's going again then we may as well just sell him and let him actually have a career somewhere.
 
With Lille he will play +20 games per season.


With us, he will play once every two months in the Carling Cup.

So its better for his development to go where he can play regularly.
 
Rony is absolute class. I really do have a great feeling about him. He's still so young and for those who are arguing about the experience he could gain on loan, imagine giving him an entire season to learn from and work with Merlin. If he progresses I think there could be a very smooth passing of the torch once Dave calls it a career or goes back home to Spain. Keep him in Manchester next year Manuel.
 
SuperBlu said:
With Lille he will play +20 games per season.


With us, he will play once every two months in the Carling Cup.

So its better for his development to go where he can play regularly.
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Then we should sack the manager and put somebody in who will play him more than once every two months.
 
everythingchangesbutblue said:
Good read that mate.
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Damocles said:
Then we should sack the manager and put somebody in who will play him more than once every two months.
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I agree, although thats not going to happen next season. I still hope that City promote three into the first team squad next season. Lopes, Denayer and Kelechi. They probably wont get as many games as we would hope but they will get their opportunity and hopefully take it when it comes. Cup games, cover for injury, impact subs and carefully chosen EPL games should achieve careful integration into the first team and allow them to demonstrate they are good enough.
 
Kelechi IS somebody who needs to show more despite being the main forum KFA's player of choice after a couple of decent goals. Too early to make a judgement on him as it could just be great form and a few months in the EDS can't hurt with a January promotion.

Lopes and Denayer should already be in the squad and next year should have already been looking to displace first teamers. God knows what we'll do with them but I imagine our response will be to ignore them again, forcing us to stick them out on loan and waste yet another season of their careers holding on for a moment that will never come.
 
Idontpullout said:
Looking good so far today. Interesting that the commentator is pronouncing his name not as lopez but lopes, as in sounds like mopes. He even said it was requested that he pronounced it that way.
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Turns out that's how it's pronounced in Portuguese... Lopes Mendes beach in Brazil is pronounced Lops Mends!

Class player but think the club will loan him out for another season.
 
Damocles said:
Kelechi IS somebody who needs to show more despite being the main forum KFA's player of choice after a couple of decent goals. Too early to make a judgement on him as it could just be great form and a few months in the EDS can't hurt with a January promotion.

Lopes and Denayer should already be in the squad and next year should have already been looking to displace first teamers. God knows what we'll do with them but I imagine our response will be to ignore them again, forcing us to stick them out on loan and waste yet another season of their careers holding on for a moment that will never come.
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Depending on who leaves, they may get more opportunity than you expect. I do think this is a key stage of the development of the academy as we clearly now have a small group of youngsters who are good enough to be part of the first team squad. If we don't blood them next season what does that say about our commitment and investment in youth. I think we will see two or three promoted. Hopefully your expectation will be exceeded.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
Depending on who leaves, they may get more opportunity than you expect. I do think this is a key stage of the development of the academy as we clearly now have a small group of youngsters who are good enough to be part of the first team squad. If we don't blood them next season what does that say about our commitment and investment in youth. I think we will see two or three promoted. Hopefully your expectation will be exceeded.
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It probably would say that although we are focusing on youth, these particular players are not deemed to be ready for the first team squad yet...

But that's just me and I tend to not to read into things that are most likely not there. Occams Razor and all that...
 
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