When Vitinha scored his only goal in English football, the official attendance was zero and the opposition was sixth-tier Chorley. On Saturday, there will be 70,000 there in Munich and hundreds of millions watching on as he plays in the Champions League final.
It remains a curiosity that the Portuguese playmaker, Paris Saint-Germain’s prompter-in-chief, so at home among the glamour of Paris, spent an otherwise unremarkable season in Wolverhampton during a pandemic. He made only five Premier League starts.
But there was that FA Cup goal, struck from 30 yards out. Wolves’ then captain Conor Coady was right behind it. “It was one where you are thinking, ‘don’t shoot’,” Coady tells Sky Sports. “He was miles out. But the ball just moved and swerved and all this stuff.”
The manner of the strike – it turned out to be the winner – means Vitinha has at least one cherished memory of his time in England. He has since said that despite his frustrations at a lack of game time, he would not change the experience. It was character building.
“When we turned up at Chorley, we got off the bus and we had to walk through a park to get into the ground, all this sort of stuff,” Coady recalls. There was not even room in the away dressing room for the full squad. The subs had to change in the sponsors’ lounge.
“It was brilliant. I loved it. It was a great game for people who are not from this country to understand what the cup is about. I think it opened a lot of people’s eyes because obviously we had quite a lot of Portuguese lads, players from lots of different countries.
“Sometimes, those games are the hardest games because Premier League players can get swallowed up a little bit, cannot get on the ball the way they want to. But he did. He was receiving the ball in tight areas. You understood what he was all about that day.”
Vitinha’s passing networks for Paris Saint-Germain in this season’s Champions League
Everyone understands what Vitinha is all about these days. He has completed more passes in this season’s Champions League than any other player, controlling the tempo for PSG. For Coady, it is no great surprise. “We saw that every day in training, mate.”
The wider world had only been given glimpses of Vitinha’s gifts back then. He had not even started a league game for Porto prior to his arrival on loan at Wolves. But Coady remembers the quality Vitinha showed in those sessions, including one unusual trait.
“I loved the way he took loads of touches. He was always on the ball. In our country, you are always told as kids to move the ball quickly, aren’t you? Pass and move. All of a sudden, we had this kid from Portugal who just took loads of touches but never lost it.
“In training, he was top. Every day. Whenever you played him in five-a-side, he was unbelievable. And what you see for PSG now is what he was when he was at Wolves. We are all seeing it now, we are all experiencing it, but back then he was not really playing.”
The problem that Vitinha had was similar to the problem faced by Morgan Gibbs-White at that time, another who has since blossomed away from Molineux. The midfield positions were held by Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves, arguably Wolves’ best players.
“Listen, we always knew he was a top player. The issue was that Moutinho and Neves were ahead of him.” Vitinha made only two starts in the Premier League prior to May, both in a more advanced role alongside that duo, one that did not necessarily suit him.
By the time he made those trio of starts late in the season, the die was cast. Nuno Espirito Santo still believed in Vitinha but the coach himself moved on that summer and his replacement Bruno Lage was not so sure. Besides, Vitinha was impatient for more.
“You always knew he was champing at the bit to play. Sometimes, young midfielders who come over and have players like Moutinho and Neves in front of them, they just kind of get on with it thinking their time will come. He was dying to play, desperate.
“It was important for someone like me, like the other lads in the dressing room, Joao and Ruben, just to keep him going. I am still the same now, whether you are captain or whether you are not, you try to make sure people feel welcome. And we did.
“But he was never a bad person to have around. He is a great example for others. It was so tough for him at Wolves because you had two incredible players in front of him and he was obviously only a young lad. But just look what he is doing now.”
What he is doing now is astonishing. His PSG coach Luis Enrique has said that Vitinha is the best in the world in his position, while the great Thierry Henry went rather further than that, claiming that the midfielder is playing a different sport to everyone else.
“That midfield that PSG have got, that team that PSG have got, with the way he plays, it suits him down to the ground,” Coady explains. “He has an unbelievable manager in Luis Enrique and I think we are seeing the best of him. And listen, he will get better.”
Coady points to his stable family life – “he has settled down really quickly, he has got kids at a young age” – and a dedication to his craft. This is a player who is exceptional on the ball but has still won the ball back in the middle third more than anyone else too.
On Saturday, the 25-year-old Portugal international can cap his season with a maiden Champions League triumph for him and for his club. If PSG do it, Vitinha will no doubt have been instrumental. And it will be a moment for him to reflect on his journey to get there.
A product of Porto, his transfer to Paris Saint-Germain has clearly elevated his game. But perhaps he will also remember his season in the Premier League. Far from the highlight of his career, but a key step, nevertheless. From Chorley to the Champions League.
“I think he would say it was a really valuable experience. Let’s be honest, coming to the Premier League at such a young age, no matter who you are, it is going to be a massive experience for you. But I think he would look back on it now with fond memories.
“It is just a shame, really, because that goal against Chorley was the most that the Wolves fans saw from Vitinha in a game situation. But we all knew it at the time – he is a remarkable footballer. And I am loving watching him now.” Coady is certainly not alone in that.
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Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games next season
From next season, Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.
And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports.
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