Rui Borges will give Blopa more space to show himself – Photo: MIGUEL NUNES
Rui Borges will give Blopa more space to show himself – Photo: MIGUEL NUNES
João Gião, coach of the lions’ B team, highlights the mentality of the young winger who is poised to be one of the starting options against Santa Clara. “He understands very well cases similar to his that went wrong”, he reinforced
He started the season in the B team, under the command of João Gião, but has risen a level in recent months and is currently one of the strong bets in the main squad led by Rui Borges. We are talking about Salvador Blopa, a young winger of just 18 years old, who renewed his contract this week and is now poised to be one of the initial bets in tomorrow’s match with Santa Clara. João Gião, speaking to Rádio Renascença, praised the young lion.
João Gião highlights Salvador Blopa’s qualities – Photo: Sporting CP
Of course, sometimes it’s not easy to play the Champions League in the middle of the week, play with Brugge in the middle of the week and suddenly come down, train once, bus, Felgueiras, field, ‘where am I’? This has nothing to do with whether he is humble or not, but he has dealt with it very well
«People usually say that his biggest weapon is his physique, because physically he is incredible and technically he is a kid who understands the game very well, but his biggest weapon is his mentality. He’s a kid with a spectacular mentality, he has a lot of ambition, but he’s very humble and continues to respect the older colleagues he has on the B team, because some are from a generation 2 or 3 years older than his and haven’t yet had the chance to make their debut at Sporting, but he continues to look at them with the same respect, as if they’d already made their debut and he hadn’t”, the coach began by saying, identifying another young man ready to emerge.
Salvador Blopa at the time of renewal, with the Leo president, Frederico Varandas – Photo: SPORTING CP
«Flávio Gonçalves also has that mentality, but Blopa is a kid with a lot of merit for the way he has dealt with this. Of course, sometimes it’s not easy to play the Champions League in the middle of the week, play with Brugge in the middle of the week and suddenly come down, train once, bus, Felgueiras, field, ‘where am I’? This has nothing to do with whether he is humble or not, but he has dealt with it very well. It’s a lot of credit to him, he’s a kid with a very good mind. He knows very well what he wants, he understands very well what went very wrong with similar cases, so it has been relatively easy to manage, but it is to his credit”, he concluded.
Aiko Tanaka is a combat sports journalist and general sports reporter at Archysport. A former competitive judoka who represented Japan at the Asian Games, Aiko brings firsthand athletic experience to her coverage of judo, martial arts, and Olympic sports. Beyond combat sports, Aiko covers breaking sports news, major international events, and the stories that cut across disciplines — from doping scandals to governance issues to the business side of global sport. She is passionate about elevating the profile of underrepresented sports and athletes.
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