While many clubs look on with interest at the progress of FC Porto midfielder Ruben Neves, the teenager himself is not quite thinking about any big movers just yet.
Neves is seen as yet another bright young prospect from Portugal, and since he is still 18 years old, there is said to be a lot of interest from the Premier League clubs, who could have him become a home-grown player, if he plays three season in England right now. However, the teenager himself does not seem to be too interested in moving away from Porto at the moment.
“I am under contract until June 2019 and, at the moment, I am only thinking about the club achieving its goals,a said Neves to FC Porto’s club Magazine. [via Daily Mirror]
Neves to become club symbol?
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Well, his career as a professional footballer has just started, but it seems as if FC Porto are expecting great things from Neves. In fact, club president Pinto da Costa has come out and said that he wants him to turn into the symbol of the club.
“We would like to keep him at FC Porto, as a kind of Joao [Domingos] Pinto,” Da Costa was quoted saying to O Jogo, a Portuguese paper. “That is, he was a symbol and legend of the progress of the club for several generations. I never want him to leave Porto.a
Joao Pinto was a Porto player all his life, and went on to make over 500 appearances for the Portuguese club, in a career spanning 17 years, in the 1980s and the 1990s.
Neves, already a long-timer at Porto, to snub lucrative offers?
Neves might be just 18 years old, but he has already been at FC Porto for a decade now, joining the club when he was just eight. As he develops, a number of top Premier League clubs like Chelsea FC, Arsenal FC, and Liverpool FC are rumoured to have been keeping tabs on him.
However, their efforts at landing him might well be foiled, as the player himself might well be interested in becoming the symbol of the club.
“To hear the president say that he wants to make me a symbol of the club? It’s fantastic. This made me feel very proud,” said Neves.
