You can look at Portugal’s national team in one of two ways: underachievers based on the historic strength of their domestic league, but also overachievers due to a fairly small population of 10.5 million people (although its colonial heritage does stretch to Brazil and pockets of Africa).

Aside from the Eusebio-inspired period of the 1960s which yielded a World Cup semi-final in 1966, and a brief period of success in the 80s, the Portuguese national team had struggled to match the potency of its club sides which have brought home four European Cup/Champions League titles.

But then the period from the mid-90s to the mid-2000s became an era of unprecedented success fuelled as it was by a “golden generation” of Portuguese talent from Luis Figo, Paulo Sousa and Rui Costa to the likes of goalkeeper Vitor Baia, defender Fernando Couto and attacking midfielder Joao Pinto.

Many members of that side had been part of teams that had won the U20 World Cups in 1989 and 1991 and were expected to make a similar impact at senior level.

Although they qualified for five of the six major tournaments between 1996 and 2006, reaching the semis in Euro 2000 and the 2006 World Cup, it was Euro 2004 on home soil that was set up as the crowning moment for Portugal’s greatest generation.

The fact that they failed at the last hurdle in an agonising final defeat to Greece should not take away from the brilliance of that generation.

Talented successors

And although certainly not close to the era of Figo and Rui Costa as a collective, Portugal was also fortunate to have talented successors – a group of players including Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani, Joao Moutinho and Miguel Veloso.

That generation has continued to qualify for major tournaments, putting in respectable performances at Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012.

But Cristiano Ronaldo and the rest of his generation are in their mid to late 20s and probably have one or two major tournaments left in them – assuming they qualify.

However, looking towards the medium to long-term, Portugal have a major problem facing them as there are very few worthy successors emerging.

Portugal’s squad for the 2014 World Cup qualifying matches against Israel and Azerbaijan only featured one player under the age of 23 – Deportivo de La Coruna loanee Pizzi.

Apart from him the only other youngster to have emerged recently has been 21-year-old striker Nelson Oliveira who played at Euro 2012.

But he is endemic of the problems facing young Portuguese players. Although still on the books of the country’s most successful club Benfica, Oliveira has barely played for the first team, spending much of his career so far on loan. 

With Portugal’s Big Two of Benfica and FC Porto packing their teams with talent from South America – a cheap way of remaining competitive and profitable in an increasingly polarised European scene – young Portuguese players are not getting their chance at the top level.

Only seven players out of Benfica’s 25-man squad are Portuguese while that figure is only four at Porto – and oftentimes those Portuguese players are either bench warmers or squad players.

Sporting Lisbon which has traditionally produced many of Portugal’s recent celebrated talent like Cristiano Ronaldo, Figo and Nani is going through a financial mess and in any case, their current youth team products are not of the same standard as previous years.

Sporting Braga which has replaced Sporting Lisbon as Portugal’s third team in recent seasons also have a significant number of Portuguese players but most are journeymen in their mid-20s and carry less influence within the club in comparison to the nine Brazilians in the squad.

The problems are reflected at national level. Portugal had won five European titles at U16 and U17 level since the 1980s but the last one arrived in 2003.

Portugal did finish a creditable runner up in the 2011 World U20 Championship in Colombia, exactly 20 years after Figo and co had won the very same tournament.  But how many of those players have made a concerted push towards the Portugal senior side?

Apart from Nelson Oliveira, it appears that figure could be described as a perfectly round zero – and that should be a major concern for Portugal.

 

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