• Leonardo Jardim

It may have been a disappointing Champions League week for Liga NOS clubs, but one Portuguese coach made an outstanding start to the group stage of this season’s tournament.

Leonardo Jardim’s Monaco travelled to London and beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in front of 85,000 fans at Wembley stadium. Director of the Portuguese football site Maisfutebol and journalist Luís Mateus believes the manager deserves to be given a shot at one of Europe’s major clubs.

PortuGOAL provides a translated version of the article published today on Maisfutebol.

All of you already know about the summer’s big-time transfers, amongst them: Raphael Guerreiro, Renato Sanches and João Mário, a trio of European Champions (that still feels so good to say!). But what about the less “hyped” transfer business involving Portugal’s national representatives?

Who will shine away from their home country this season? Let’s take a look at the long list of Portuguese movers abroad whose permanent or loan transfers may not have made the headlines but who just may be making the right step to get their careers going.

When new owner Dejphon Chansiri bought Sheffield Wednesday in January 2015, he had one overriding objective – for The Owls to return to the Premier League in 2017 to coincide with the club’s 150th anniversary.

Carlos Carvalhal almost achieved this a year early, after guiding the team to the Championship promotion play-off final at Wembley in May, and although a 1-0 defeat to Hull City left the club’s fans disappointed, hopes are high of an even better season this time round.

Portugal midfielder André Gomes has signed for Spanish giants Barcelona.

Speculation had surrounded the Valencia midfielder for months about a potential move to Real Madrid, but La Liga rivals Barça announced last night through their official Twitter account that agreement has been reached to sign the 22-year-old.

Details of the deal were not released, but it has been widely reported that the fee will be in the region of €50 million and the Euro 2016 winner will put pen to paper on a five-year deal.