Luís Guilherme: Sporting’s Rising Star – Secrets & Style

«Shoot!», Abel Ferreira shouted from the bench the moment Luís Guilherme gained space to shoot during the game between Independiente del Valle and Palmeiras, in Ecuador, for the 2024 Libertadores Cup. The Sporting reinforcement, even without being able to hear the Portuguese coach, perhaps through telepathy, actually took the shot and, at 90+6′, made it 3-2 for the Verdão team, who had gone to half-time. losing 0-2. It was the then 18-year-old jewel’s first goal for the first team of the club he had arrived at seven years earlier.

«Seeing Luís Guilherme score is like seeing a daughter getting a good grade at school», said Abel Ferreira at the end of the match. «It’s a source of pride, because I know what they work for, I know what they want, but sometimes I have to stop them and tell them what they don’t like to hear, like you do to your children, my daughters sometimes say I’m the worst father in the world, Luís must have thought ‘this guy is the worst coach in the world’ but when I see a moment like that I feel like it’s worth it, he’s very good at shooting, when he left the ball, I saw it in there”, said the Portuguese coach, one of those responsible for the impetus at a premature stage of his career.

As two months after this auspicious kick, Luís Guilherme left for West Ham, from the millionaire Premier League, he did not have time to impose himself, as an absolute starter, at the club for which he won all the titles from under-11 to under-18. On this long, triumphant journey, full of titles, he became one of the apexes of a triangle of left-handed talents, alongside Endrick and Estevão, called the ‘billion generation’, that is, one billion reais, that is, whose combined sales would reach close to 160 million euros, according to an estimate by Palmeiras leaders. Three diamonds paid for in gold.

With Endrick, the same age, who would move to Real Madrid (Spain), he formed the duo Batman and Batman because, as explained by João Paulo Sampaio, the coordinator of the alviverde formation, «they were the two protagonists, there was no Robin». But the journey for the young talent has not always been easy, as he likes to play wide on the right to enter diagonally but also loves to play as a 10 to make use of that frontal and placed shot that he used in Ecuador. «But in the first training session he cried, he was shy», Marcelo Paraíba, his coach at Esporte Clube Del Rey, told the GE website.

Paraíba, as well as Gladson Santos, his father, and Ana Maria Lira, his mother, followed in Luís Guilherme’s first steps in São Paulo. Arriving in the megalopolis where 22 million people travel from Aracaju, the quiet capital of tiny Sergipe, the attacker suffered but with the presence of Ana Maria, who left her job as a supermarket cashier and became a waitress in a restaurant next to Allianz Parque, she adapted. Gladson, a police sergeant, had to remain in Aracaju.

In the summer, Luís Guilherme stood out on the field — he played 45 official games at Palmeiras, with that aforementioned goal — but off it he always did everything he could to remain as incognito as possible: he has no tattoos, he doesn’t wear earrings, he only shares football-related posts on social media and he maintained a regimented routine, strangely regimented in fact, for a teenager. Maybe that’s why I’ve always been one step ahead of everyone else who grew up with him. Luís Guilherme, at 13 years old, was already in the under-15s, at 14 he was outstanding in the under-17s, at 15 he showed brilliance in the under-20s and, finally, at 16 years old, he became the youngest Brazilian of the century to be South American champion in this category.

Steps that never took away the ambition of this talented winger who, in this still short journey, only took one false step with his premature departure to England where he played just 18 games at West Ham. A different reality, without the brilliance of the past, which Luís Guilherme intends to recover. Also in green and white, but in Alvalade…

Luís Guilherme already felt the pulse of the Leonine locker room and a few hours after it became official, he went with the team to Leiria where he played in the final four of the League Cup against V. Guimarães. It still added just a few seconds — a debut with a bad memory as the lions would end up falling in the race and failing to reach the final of the competition — but for history it was the starting point in the new stage. With just over a week of working with the team, Luís Guilherme is trying to acquire some of the team’s routines. The intensity and desire demonstrated in the first few days impressed the coach, however, as BALL As it turned out, an opportunity to be launched in the eleven will have to wait a few more weeks.

The lions will start tomorrow to prepare for the reception to Casa Pia, next Friday in Alvalade, a duel in which Rui Borges will return to his offensive formula with… Geny Catamo, returned from CAN, being the solution on the right aisle. Luís Guilherme will be part of the squad and, at this initial stage, he wants to take advantage of some important absences — such as Quenda and Pedro Gonçalves — to add some minutes to the game. Luís Guilherme, moreover, looking at the first training sessions with the team in Alcochete, has been tested mainly on the left wing of the offensive trio, a position that opened up many problems after Pedro Gonçalves’ prolonged injury.

Maxi Araújo has been the main alternative to fill the Portuguese international’s place, however, given the Uruguayan’s punishment in Friday’s match, Rui Borges is expected to offer the starting spot to Alisson Santos. Even so, the Brazilian hired from UD Leiria will have the shadow of the Lions’ most recent reinforcement who will be looking for the opportunity to play the second game with the Lions and a few more precious minutes to show his qualities.