Team of Tomorrow Tuesday: Antunes

Enough of the wingers and forwards, let’s check some defense. Today’s featured player is Vitorino Gabriel Pacheco Antunes, more commonly known simply as “Antunes.” He was loaned by relegation-fighting Paços de Ferreira of the Portuguese SuperLiga (or bwinLiga, however corporate you prefer to be) to AS Roma in the Italian top flight before this season began.

He hasn’t gotten much burn in the left back position there, having played less than thirty league minutes total and only being used a handful of times as a sub. The sentiment among Romanistas seems to be that they like his game and think he can be a left back of their future, as was evidenced by their selecting him as Man of the Match in his debut against Manchester United in the Champions League this past December.

He’s been capped once for the Portuga national team and has featured for the other various “sub (Fill in age here)” teams as well. He’s got a fantastic left foot (see evidence below) and great overall defensive ability.

While I would say it’s a good thing for his development that he’s playing at a club such as Roma, he isn’t actually playing much at this point. On the other hand, coming back to Paços de Ferreira would mean, as it stands, that he’d be playing second division Portuguese football. Not the ideal situation either.

With our defensive players’ propensity for getting injured, keep an eye on this kid for the near as well as not so near future.