Could we be in the presence of another wonderkid? Well, lets see…

This lad’s reputation has developed as much as his football in the last 3-4 years to the point of driving Benfica fans nuts. Everyone that has any knowledge of the Benfica youth ranks, has heard everything there is to say about this player, who many predict to be on of Benfica’s biggest “signings” next year. We all hear of him but have never really seen him play. Some say he is a new Miccolli, some say he is the new Simao and some say he is the new Rui Costa. Some actually say he is a mixture of all these players…?

If that is the case, then Benfica has definitely one of the most talented U19’s in Europe, now I’d like now quit this reputation chat and lets get down to business. As a player who is he really?

Andre Carvalhas joined Benfica at the age of 13, pretty much due to the fact that in his local club, as a midfielder, he scored 100 goals in two seasons. Yes, that is 50 goals a year from midfield. He was quickly snapped by Benfica who quite fortunately is the club this player loves. Trust us when we say this, he has turned down Man Utd to stay with us. So back to business, At this age he was already playing with 15-16 year olds in the Benfica Iniciados ranks and outplaying them all, skill, tactical knowledge and an extremely deft eye for goal allowed Andre to match himself with older players.

At this stage, the club itself was developing, the Seixal football academy was being built and also Benfica was headed to a far more stable direction, one that involved investing in the schooling. Carvalhas very much benefited from this as Benfica has Bruno Lage and nowadays the Joao Alves, two very experienced footballers and coaches providing all their know how for the benefit of Benfica and the young players. In fact, Joao Alves is a great midfield legend for Benfica and therefore this was all too motivating for Carvalhas.

Carvalhas under Lage and Alves has developed in heaps and bounds, every year his improvement is steady both tactically and technically which makes him an obvious choice in every single game. In the past, Carvalhas has shown to be quite injury prone, nothing major, just lots of small irritating injuries which can be explained by his heavy game schedule with his growing body.

Last year, this was evident as he lost quite a lot of his prominence in the starting 11 due to his lack of fitness. Fortunately for Andre, coaches and fans, his injury problems of late are a thing of the past, he has played 11 games out of 11 possible with 8 goals. Second top goalscorer. His main potential though, is his ability to destabilise the opponent in a variety of fashions. His one to one ability and ball control are top class, his passing, movement and tactical skills are stupendous, and to add to this he can score goals (Great Goals) and is a team player. Out of a group of 28 players in the Juniores, he is number 1, undoubtedly the greatest talent in the youth setup. There are others (Pimenta, Lassana Camara, David Simao, Ruben Lima) but Andre is the leader of this pack, closely followed by Miguel Vitor and Romeu Ribeiro, now in the senior squad.

He is also beginning to feature in the senior squad training with a lot more affluence partly due to his sheer quality and Camacho’s believe in developing young players. Carvalhas this year as well, has been called up 4 times to the under 19 squad for Portugal where he was nominated man of the match 3 times!!! It is not a wonder why Ajax, Inter Milan and Manchester United are now sending scouts to the Benfica youth games much to the Benfica fan’s worries.

His inclusion in the Senior Squad for next season is debatable though. Andre has more than enough quality and potential to join the team next year but his minutes on the pitch will be limited. Will Camacho be able to give him the minutes when there are players like Cardozo, Nuno Gomes, Di Maria, Adu and Cristian Rodriguez there? A loan to a smaller team might be the best option, even a second division club. This hopefully would ensure that Andre would be playing more minutes and developing faster, and lets face it, he is only just 18. Time is a plenty for the introduction of Andre, Benfica should be patient and so should Andre, one thing is for sure, this player fits the wonderkid tag very nicely…