Potential England star?
Sporting star Marcus Edwards has revealed that he still harbours ambitions of returning to English football and playing in the Premier League in the near future. The young Englishman made the move to Portuguese football in 2019 on a free transfer and has gone from strength to strength since then, where he is now worth €20 million and the subject of constant media speculation.
The forward has picked up five goals and five assists in his first 16 games of the season for Sporting, bagging no less than two goals and two assists in his club’s Champions League group stage. His most recent goal came in a 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur, which just so happens to be the club that Edwards began his career with as a young player. However, despite how kind Portuguese football has been to the 23-year-old talent, the English forward still has clear plans to return to the Premier League and prove his worth in the future.
Club Comparison
Liga Portugal
Premier League
£206.37m
Market Value
£616.77m
First Tier
League Level
First Tier
£41.36m
Expenditures 22/23
£152.91m
Rúben Amorim
Managers
Antonio Conte
Full Club Comparison
When asked by the Evening Standard if his move to Sporting has turned his career around, Edwards said: “Definitely. Everyone has a different journey. For me it worked out, going over there and it clicked straight away. It has been good for me, but I would love to play in England [again] and be near my family.” He added: “I have grown up in a lot of ways, I’m 23 and last time I was at Tottenham, I was only 17, 18. I was only a baby, so I have grown up. I was just a kid, you know what kids are like.”
Bellingham, Edwards & Co. – The most valuable English players abroad
From relative unknown to Champions League star – Edwards’ Portuguese journey
After joining Vitória Guimarães for free in 2019, the young forward hit the ground running in the Portuguese top flight, with no less than seven goals and seven assists in just 26 games. And by the end of his first season at the club, Edwards’ market value had shot up from €1.25m to an impressive €13m.
The player’s next season and a half at Vitória took a slight dip, with just 10 goals and six assists in 51 league games, but it was upon his €7.5m move to Sporting in January 2022 that Liga Portugal fans really saw the former Spurs youth player hit his stride in a team that could offer him far more attacking chances per game.
Move over Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane
The most impressive Englishman in this season’s Champions League has been Marcus Edwardspic.twitter.com/b49sCaV364
— Transfermarkt.co.uk (@TMuk_news) September 14, 2022
As such, Edwards picked up no less than three goals and three assists in his 12 league games in the second half of the 2021/22 season and has now blown right past that with his performances for the club in this year’s league campaign, as well as stand-out moments of magic in the Champions League, most notably against Spurs over the course of both games against his former club.
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