Sporting, runner-up in Portuguese football, kick off the 2022/23 preseason today with only, for now, a new ‘face’ in the squad, St. Justo, and still with many uncertainties, especially in the midfield area.
On his return to work at the Alcochete Academy, coach Rúben Amorim will still not have the internationals, who will be entitled to a few more days of vacation for having been at the service of the respective teams, and will have to make some decisions, especially with the players who were on loan last season and others who, coming from training, are trying to carve out a niche for themselves in the first team.
For now, the big news will be Jeremiah St. Juste, a Dutch central defender who spent the last three seasons at Mainz, Germany, although in 2021/22 he only played a few games due to a shoulder problem.
The 25-year-old, who as the only signing of the new season promises to be the great ‘attraction’ of the first day of work of the ‘lions’He trained at Heerenveen and also went through Feyenoord before heading to Germany.
In the first few days, St. Juste will continue to be without the company of figures such as captain Sebastián Coates (Uruguay), as well as midfielders Matheus Nunes and João Palhinha (both from Portugal), all for having finished the last season more late, having been in the service of their respective national teams. .
Nunes and Palhinha appear even with main doubts in the new Sporting squad, since, almost daily, the Portuguese sports press speaks of an imminent departure of both to English football.
Manuel Ugarte (Uruguay), Fatawu Issahaku (Ghana) and Gonçalo Inácio, Rodrigo Ribeiro, Dário Essugo and Gonçalo Esteves (all from Portugal’s youth teams) should also be absent at the beginning of work.
Issahaku, already an international with the Ghana national team at just 18 years old, will have the opportunity to show himself to Rúben Amorim, as well as Rodrigo Ribeiro and Dário Essugo, players of the youth team that the Leonese coach has already used in the main team in the past.
Among those on loan, Gonzalo Plata and Jovane Cabral will hardly be part of the pre-season work, while Eduardo Quaresma and Geny Catamo may have another chance with Amorim.
Regarding last season, the absences of players such as Feddal, who finished his contract, and Slimani, ruled out ‘100%’ by Rúben Amorim, as well as Pablo Sarabia, the great figure of the 2021/22 campaign, who returned to Paris Saint -Germain after the end of the assignment.
On the first day of the 2022/23 season, Sporting will hold a training session, scheduled for the afternoon in Alcochete, after a morning dedicated to medical and physical tests.
As expected, the ‘Leonese’ team returns to training in Lagos this preseason, in a similar way to what happened in the last two seasons, in a period in which they will play several friendly matches.
The boarding school in the Algarve will take place between July 10 and 20, with theoretically very competitive matches for the runner-up, with José Mourinho’s Roma on July 14 and Villarreal, semifinalist in the ‘Champions’, on July 19 .
Both are scheduled for the Estádio do Algarve, after Sporting played at the Estádio da Belavista, in Lagoa, the July 13the Belgian runner-up, the gilloise union street.
At the José Alvalade Stadium, the team will play the July 24in front of Sevillethe Five Violins trophy, in a game that also usually serves as a presentation to members.
Sporting provisional squad for 2022/23:
- Goalkeepers: António Adan and André Paulo
- Defense: Sebastián Coates, Eduardo Quaresma, Pedro Porro, Rúben Vinagre, Gonçalo Inácio, Luís Neto, José Marsà, Jeremiah St. Juste (ex Mainz), Gonçalo Esteves, Ricardo Esgaio, Matheus Reis and Flávio Nazinho.
- Midfielders: Ugarte, Palhinha, Matheus Nunes, Daniel Bragança and Dário Essugo,
- Forwards: Nuno Santos, Marcus Edwards, Rodrigo Ribeiro, Fatawu Issahaku, Geny Catamo, Bruno Tabata, Paulinho and Pedro Gonçalves.
Coach: Ruben Amorim
Departures: Feddal (contract termination), Slimani (coach option), Pablo Sarabia (loan termination), João Virgínia (loan termination).
Source: Observadora
