Diogo Dalot was once rated as the next Cristiano Ronaldo… now he is Manchester United’s new Gary Neville
Ashley Young leads chorus of tributes from Old Trafford team-mates for the Portugal Under-21 right-back who is tipped to be a Utd hero for the next decade
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JOSE MOURINHO rates him so highly he has already drawn comparisons with Gary Neville.
Ashley Young has led the chorus of team-mates who are tipping him to be a Manchester United hero for a decade.
And as a kid, coaches rated him so far ahead of his peers that comparisons were even drawn with Cristiano Ronaldo.
Yet for Diogo Dalot, the newest kid on the block at Old Trafford, the fairytale could so easily have had a horror finish before the end of the first chapter.
Dalot, 19, had been singled out as a special talent from the day he first kicked a ball for Escola Fintas Academie, a renowned footballing school in his home town of Braga in Portugal.
Within three years Boavista, Benfica, Sporting Lisbon and Braga were all desperate to get the precocious youngster on their books.
But as fans his parents were always going to send him to Porto and it was en route to one training session when he cheated death.
The car he was travelling in, with a friend and his father, overturned and was a mangled mess — yet, amazingly, all three walked away without a scratch.
Luis Travessa Martins was his first coach at Fintas and still remembers the shock waves when details of the crash filtered back.
Travessa Martins, who is still helping produce young talent at the club, recalled: “It was huge news in Braga because everyone knew this boy.
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“He was in a car with the father of a team-mate, going from Braga to Porto’s training ground, when it flipped over on the motorway.
“The car was unrecognisable but Diogo escaped totally unharmed – they all did. It was incredible.
“Everything could have been so different. He could have died in the accident at the age of 11.
“You’d think a crash like that could leave a child with psychological scars, you’d think they would just want to get home quickly, but with Diogo there was no chance.
“It was against the will of the parents but he insisted on going to training and it was impossible to stop him.
“I guess in his head he was thinking, ‘I am the captain of the team and there is no way I am missing the training’.
“It was remarkable — remember, we’re talking a boy of 11 years old.
“In fact the next day there was a meeting, mainly because he insisted, as the coach at Porto was picking the team for that weekend’s game and he wanted to make sure he was in it!”
When Dalot got his first team break at Porto, aged just 17, he made an instant impression.
So much so that United forked out £19million to sign him after only six games.
It was a stuttering start to life at Old Trafford, as he arrived with a knee injury which needed surgery, and then another knock sidelined him until last month.
He made a delayed Premier League bow in the 2-2 draw with Southampton a fortnight ago, kept his place for the clashes with Arsenal and Fulham and is set to feature against Jurgen Klopp’s high-flying Liverpool today.
Yet it has come as no surprise to the staff at Fintas because Dalot was so good, they had to get special permission to speed him through the ranks.
Travessa Martins, 57, added: “At Fintas we don’t organise the teams through age, but from how good their all-round footballing ability and knowledge is.
“We wanted to put Diogo in a team three years older than his age bracket but needed medical authorisation from Lisbon to allow it.
“In Portugal you are only allowed to move kids up one age group, but we wanted him to move much higher because he was so far ahead of everyone else.
“We were worried Diogo could have stopped progressing by being in a comfort zone.
“He needed competition because he was growing so quickly as a player and was tremendously hungry.
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“I am so proud to see him with United. When I am seeing him on the television, sometimes I have the flashbacks of this little boy running like a rocket, dribbling past players.
“We knew right away that he could make it on the biggest stage because it was all so easy for him — and we weren’t wrong.
“From the first time we saw him play, all the coaches said he was a force of nature. He was like a crazy horse with so much power. He was just like an animal.
“He reminds me a bit of Cristiano Ronaldo — not so much because of his ability, but his power was always unbelievable for a boy of his age.”
If he does half as well as United’s most famous Portuguese import of all, they really do have a diamond on their hands.