Meet Portugal’s Goncalo Ramos: The man who scored the first hat-trick of FIFA World Cup 2022 | Football News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: 21 year old Goncalo Ramos, who plays as a forward, replaced his boyhood idol Cristiano Ronaldo in Portugal’s starting line-up in the round of 16 clash against Switzerland. This was his first international start and he made it a record outing, scoring the first hat-trick of FIFA World Cup 2022 in his country’s 6-1 victory over Switzerland on Tuesday.
Ramos first struck in the 17th minute at Lusail stadium before adding two more goals early in the second half.
Portugal will face Morocco in Saturday’s quarterfinal at Al Thumama stadium in Doha in their first appearance in the last eight of the World Cup since 2006.
Ramos’s hat-trick and his smoking pistol goal celebrations instantly made him one of the World Cup’s hottest prospects.

(AFP photo)
Ramos had never played for Portugal before being selected in the World Cup squad last month. He was given the No. 26 shirt in the 26-man squad and played for only a few minutes as a late substitute in Portugal’s group wins over Ghana and Uruguay. He had zero attempts on goal in those games.
The first hat-trick at this year’s World Cup was only the fifth that’s been scored in the past three tournaments. One of those was in fact registered by Cristiano Ronaldo four years ago, when he was 33, in a 3-3 group-stage draw with Spain.
Ramos scored the opener for Portugal with a stunning strike at the near post after 17 minutes and added a second in the 51st when he put the ball through Swiss keeper Yann Sommer’s legs before helping tee up Raphael Guerreiro’s goal four minutes later.

(Getty Images)
Ramos made his international debut as recently as November 17 this year in a pre-World Cup friendly against Nigeria, coming on as a 67th minute substitute and promptly scoring 15 minutes later with the fourth goal in a 4-0 win.
The Benfica striker’s treble vs Switzerland made him the first player to score a hat-trick in his first World Cup start since Germany’s Miroslav Klose against Saudi Arabia in 2002. Klose incidentally holds the record for the most number of World Cup goals ever scored – 16 across 4 editions.
Ramos will return to play for Benfica in the Portuguese league. Led by goals from Ramos, Benfica is unbeaten both in Portugal and in the Champions League.
Born in Algarve, the forward burst onto the scene with Benfica this season after being given an enhanced role as the central striker following the sale of Darwin Nunez to Liverpool and has scored 14 goals in 21 games in all competitions, quickly adjusting to his new role.
Known for his versatility of playing in several offensive positions, such as a striker, or second striker, Ramos is nicknamed “O Feiticeiro” in Portuguese, which means ‘The Wizard’.
Ramos also played for the Portugal under-17s in the 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship in England and was also in the Portugal team that finished runners-up to Spain at the 2019 UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Armenia.
Ramos’ exemplary ability to attack and create space both inside and outside the penalty area with his movement make him a potential superstar of the future.
Apart from Ronaldo, Ramos’ role models are Robert Lewandowski and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.