The Wonderkid Files: Ângelo - the Brazilian sensation on his way to Chelsea

Say what you like about Chelsea’s recent form in the transfer market – and we certainly have – but one thing that doesn’t seem to have changed since the Abramovic days is the London club’s knack for finding young talent. With the signing of the astonishingly talented Ecuadorian teenager Kendry Páez already secured, they’re now on the verge of adding another brilliant South American youngster to their ranks – Ângelo.

In the latest edition of The Wonderkid Files (you can scroll down to the bottom to find more) we dig through the stats and the video clips to bring you an in-depth scouting report on a Brazilian winger who has been pulling up plenty of trees in Série A over the past two seasons, and who could be lighting up the Premier League before too long.

Referred to as Ângelo, Ângelo Gabriel or Ângelo Borges, depending on who you ask, the 18-year-old is an inside forward with sensational dribbling skills and has already made 129 senior appearances for Santos – the club that produced Neymar and Péle. Indeed, when he made his debut at just 15, he was 11 days younger than the greatest Brazilian of them all when he first turned out for the Peixe.

Even a cursory spin through some YouTube highlights reveals the reason he’s causing such a fuss – he is truly astonishing with the ball at his feet. His close control, the speed at which he switches direction, his knack for squirming through tight gaps and his array of tricks and flicks to make space means he’s already up there with the world’s best when it comes to dribbling past his man, and the stats back that up.

Last season he was tackled less than a third of the time when taking on his man, and he beats opposing players around 4.5 times per game – a colossal number at any decent level. He also makes nearly six progressive carries per game, meaning the number of times he has brought the ball either ten yards towards the opposing goal or into the box with the ball at his feet. The numbers eclipse almost every player in the world below the ‘big five’ leagues, and the remarkable thing is that they’re actually slight down on his benchmarks for the previous season.

For instance, all those tricks and flicks and lightning changes of pace have generated 3.5 shots per game for his team this season – a strong figure – but that’s down on nearly five last year. He’s putting up wildly impressive numbers while on an apparent downturn in form. If this is him at a lower ebb, his best must be truly terrifying.

In terms of his role on the pitch, he’s a typical left-footed inside forward, typically cutting inside and laying the ball off rather than looking to get to the byline to cross the ball – and he’s extremely effective at it. One thing he isn’t however, is a player who likes to get into the box very much, a fact which rather belies the lazy and tediously inevitable comparisons to Neymar, which really exist solely because of his dribbling talent and the club he plays for. Ângelo isn’t a goalscorer and he isn’t the last man on the end of the pass, but a roaming playmaker who can open defences up at will with his dribbling skills and acceleration.

That habit of looking to kick-start plays rather than finish them means he can be fairly criticised for being a little one-note, and he doesn’t have high production in his own right. He’s only scored five goals for Santos in those 129 appearances, and has registered just nine assists in domestic competitions to date. If he could add a little bit of a goal threat of his own, he would become a much more complete player – but as it is, he generates so many opportunities, wins so many free-kicks and so much space for his colleagues that it’s hard to complain about the qualities he doesn’t have. The ones he does possess are exceptional.

It will be interesting to see how he adapts to life in Europe. He is a slight figure, 5’8” tall and supposedly under 70kg in weight – but while the physical demands of leagues like the English Premier League can put a lot of stress on smaller frames, he will be well used to taking a bit of a kicking in Brazilian football. For all of the ideals of the jogo bonito, Brazilian defenders seldom take kindly to being made to look like a mug by a quick backheel. Série A makes tougher footballers than European football journalism would sometimes have you believe.

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Chelsea are reported to be in the final stages of sorting out a deal worth something in the region of £13m after Barcelona withdrew their interest, and it is anticipated that he will be loaned out to French side Strasbourg – who have been bought out by Chelsea’s owners – before any attempt is made to integrate him into the first-team squad at Stamford Bridge. It will be at least a year before we see his mazy runs and bursts of acceleration in the Premier League, but if the evidence presented so far is anything to go by – it will be worth the wait.

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