It's been a heady few months for Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Joao Gomes. The two-goal hero at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in February, he bossed England for Brazil at Wembley last month. But as South American football journalist Tim Vickery explains, it hasn't been an easy ride to the top for the 23-year-old.
While he is preparing for his next crunching tackle, Wolves midfielder Gomes is almost certainly casting an eye back across the Atlantic to see how his old club Flamengo are getting on in the Copa Libertadores, South America’s Champions League.
Gomes came through the ranks with Flamengo, from his home city of Rio de Janeiro, and made his senior debut in a Libertadores game in October 2020. Two years later the competition gave him what, so far, is his crowning glory. He was part of the Flamengo side that won the trophy, with his exploits in the Libertadores bringing him to the attention of Wolves.
The club from the Black Country were scouring South America in search of a midfielder. They cast their eye on River Plate's Enzo Fernandez, but lost out to Benfica. In the case of Gomes, they could count on an advantage. It was his aim to play in the Premier League.
There was interest from Lyon, a club with strong Brazilian connections and far better known in his homeland. But he had his heart set on England and completed the move at the start of last year.
Trading the South American summer for the English winter brought its own problems.
“The cold!” he exclaimed in an interview with Globo Esporte. “I had difficulty breathing, you feel it in your lungs.”
Language was also a barrier. “My English is still not good,” he admits. “But if the other person makes an effort, then in football terms we can communicate, and it’s been like that at Wolverhampton.”
But the biggest and most important problem was the need to adapt to a different type of football. In Brazil he was the midfield strongman. He lost some of that advantage in England, and, as he confesses, “Other players would come and steal the ball from me as if I was a child."
This was not merely a matter of physical strength, it was also a question of the extra intensity of the game.
“I was having too many touches on the ball," explained Gomes. "This could harm my team, but at first I didn’t realise. Here, any extra touches can make your team lose a chance to launch a counter-attack. So I’m more dynamic now, with and without the ball.
"I had problems bringing the ball under control and instantly moving it in the direction that I wanted to play, and this is one of the areas where I’ve improved most.”
But there was one aspect of his play that was immediately able to flower at Wolves. The Flamengo team where he made his name was very front loaded, full of strikers and attacking midfielders. Gomes was the player who balanced out the side, running and chasing, covering space and tackling - and the side badly missed him after he made the move.
At Wolves, he has been able to get forward more. “I have more freedom because I have a relationship with the rest of the midfield. When I go forward, the others will stay back, and vice versa.”
The game where he broke forward to best effect was at Tottenham Hotspur in February, where he appeared as an element of surprise to score both goals in his team’s shock 2-1 win.
Gomes' best bits this season
As fortune would have it, in the crowd to watch him was Dorival Junior, the new Brazil coach. Dorival was already well aware of Gomes and his virtues - he was in charge of Flamengo when they won that Libertadores in 2022.
But scoring two goals in front of the national team boss clearly did him no harm. Gomes was called up in March and made his Brazil debut in the 1-0 win against England, where he ran, covered and snapped into so many tackles that former World Cup winning winger Denilson dubbed him "the pitbull of Wembley".
Wolves fans, of course, are both aware and appreciative of this enthusiastic way that Gomes goes about his work. The club were looking for a player with exactly that kind of spirit, and signing Gomes has been good news on the pitch - and could well be good news for the bank balance.
There is talk of interest from Manchester United, who this season have clearly missed the lung power of the much maligned Fred. So could Gomes be heading further north? It is just as well that he has got used to the cold.
