As we approach Gameweek 31 in Liga Portugal, you would be forgiven for looking at Gameweek 30 as a distant memory after the Taça de Portugal semi-final fixtures – so let’s see if any of these events jog your memory.
Post-injury Gustavo Silva seems to be picking up where he left off with a beautiful finish as Vitória SC scraped by Gil Vicente.
Fellow European football contenders Famalicão squandered a 1-2 lead as the inevitable Ricardo Horta cemented a Minho stalemate in the 99th minute.
Despite Tomané’s best efforts, AFS drew 2-2 with Rio Ave confirming their relegation to Liga Portugal 2.
Rafa Silva rolled back the years, effectively killing Sporting’s hopes of securing a third consecutive league title in a fierce Dérbi de Lisboa.
And of course, Chuchu Ramírez scored again for Nacional.
Nacional currently sit two points above the dreaded relegation play-off zone – survival would be largely attributed to their Venezuelan talisman who has scored 15 of their 32 league goals.
PortuGOAL are aboard the Chuchu train as Ramirez becomes the latest Figure of the Week. Kevin Fernandes reports.
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The Venezuela-Madeira connection
Born in Tovar of the Mérida state in Venezuela, Jesús Andrés Ramírez Díaz is a 27-year-old journeyman who finally found his home in the mountains of Madeira.
The Madeira and Venezuela connection is far from uncommon – between 2016 and 2019 alone, 12 thousand Venezuelans decided to permanently call the archipelago their home – there are more Venezuelans in Madeira than English, Spanish and Brazilians.
Storms make trees take deeper roots
Having come through the ranks at local side Estudiantes de Mérida, where he made his professional debut in 2016, Jesús also played between Mexico and Chile for four different clubs.
Before reaching Nacional, Chuchu’s most productive season came for Mexican second division side Atlético Morelia, where he contributed with 11 goals in 40 appearances in their unsuccessful bid for promotion. Before that? Eight goals as a senior footballer across multiple seasons, although this may have an explanation – more on that later.
Even at Madeiran rivals Marítimo, Chuchu had very little success – showing signs of quality, including a goal against Estrela da Amadora which had kept their hopes of survival alive in a relegation play-off. The problem? That was one of only two goals in 26 appearances, the norm as a low-key poacher who was more familiar with the drought than the rain.
After 23 goal contributions in 39 appearances, helping Nacional to secure promotion back to the promise land of top-flight Portuguese football, Chucho could not refuse European football with Vitória SC.
However, no Madeira, no party seems to be the theme of Chuchu’s career – 7 goal contributions in 40 appearances as a bit-part player in Guimarães, which disappointed Nacional’s president Rui Alves at the time.
After Mérida, Madeira is home
“We actually had a mandatory buy-back clause. The problem isn’t that Vitória want the player; the problem is that the player wants Vitória. From the moment Vitória enter the ‘bidding war’, they obviously have other financial means, as well as a certain standing, and will put other figures on the table.
All it takes is his agent ‘doing some good mental work’ with the player, regardless of whether he likes Nacional and Nacional’s coach.”
The reconciliation was clearly worth the hurt, as Chuchouonly needs 4 goals in 9 matches to match his Liga Portugal 2 tally. Only Luis Suárez, Vangelis Pavlidis, Yanis Begraoui and Rodrigo Zalazar have scored more league goals than Chuchu, with Ramírez scoring a higher percentage of goals for his club and having direct influence in 26 of Nacional’s 28 points.
Nacional depend on their talisman more than any other Liga Portugal side, while Chuchu clearly depends on Nacional for the success of his career.
The best of both worlds?
‘Ele marca da cabeça aos pés…’ 🎶 𝗝𝗘𝗦𝗨𝗦 𝗥𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗭 🥳 e já o fez três vezes nos últimos quatro jogos! ✨
— Liga Portugal (@ligaportugal) October 1, 2025
Vai seguir para o ‘hat-trick’ na próxima jornada?
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“He scores from head to toe”
Chuchu has an impressive goal catalogue for Nacional, from set-pieces to headers to incredibly composed strikes.
No player has lost more aerial duels than Chuchu, however, only one player has won more, and disputed more – Nacional’s first port of call when escaping pressure, exploding forward, and looking to make the difference in the final third.
This impressive duelling ability and combative style has an explanation - the 6'2" forward has experience as a more defensive midfielder in his formative years – perhaps even justifying his unremarkable record in previous years as his goalscoring instinct was still being honed.
Regardless, Chuchu is the dream for a side of lesser conditions and ambitions – happy to spend the majority of matches fighting and maximising every duel and loose ball, capable of supplying simple lay-offs to more creative counterparts, even carrying the ball forward as a one-man destruction team, and he does it all in relatively dominant fashion.
New horizons?
However, FC Porto may come knocking: “Clearly, Porto would be a good club for me. I have a dream of playing for a big club, but I’m staying calm; I have my family, I have two sons and now I’m going to have a new daughter, and I want the best for them too.”, Chuchu revealed to Portuguese publication Record.
With another year on his contract, Nacional will certainly look to charge a substantial fee with makes a significant difference to the reality of most Portuguese clubs.
Only two questions are left to be answered for Chuchu: Will PortuGOAL’s latest Figure of the Week remain in the first division, if not moving to the north of the mainland next season?
