sport news Hail the heirs to Ronaldo's throne! Young trio prove Portugal can do it without ... trends now

sport news Hail the heirs to Ronaldo's throne! Young trio prove Portugal can do it without ... trends now
sport news Hail the heirs to Ronaldo's throne! Young trio prove Portugal can do it without ... trends now

sport news Hail the heirs to Ronaldo's throne! Young trio prove Portugal can do it without ... trends now

He has been sitting on the throne for 15 years but now he is sitting on the bench and Portugal need a new king. Step forward Goncalo Ramos, Joao Felix and Rafael Leao.

Portugal’s 6-1 demolition of Switzerland, with Cristiano Ronaldo looking on, did not just propel Fernando Santos’s side into the pool of World Cup favourites, it also suggested they will have no trouble replacing their all-time greatest player.

Sportsmail looks at the three candidates who stepped forward on Tuesday, announcing their credentials as Ronaldo’s heir.

Cristiano Ronaldo (centre) started Portugal's 6-1 thrashing of Switzerland on the bench

Cristiano Ronaldo (centre) started Portugal's 6-1 thrashing of Switzerland on the bench

Goncalo Ramos 

Age: 21, Caps: 4, Goals: 4

Benfica did not blink when Liverpool offered them £85million for Darwin Nunez last summer because they sensed what was coming next down their incredible conveyor belt of talent.

The Algarve-born Ramos, son of Manuel, a former Portugal Under 21 international, had signed for the club aged 12 and developed from an attacking midfielder into a goalscoring centre forward in their academy.

This season he has scored nine goals in the Portuguese league and five in Europe, to send Benfica through two preliminary rounds in the Champions League and then help them finish top of their group above Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.

Ramos’s neat finishes are his trademark but he also has the touch and intelligence to function as the focal point of a very mobile Portugal attack.

Goncalo Ramos scored a stunning hat-trick to book Portugal's spot in the World Cup last eight

Goncalo Ramos scored a stunning hat-trick to book Portugal's spot in the World Cup last eight

Ramos helped Portugal win 6-1 and secure a place in the quarter-finals of the tournament

Ramos replaced Ronaldo in the starting XI and scored three goals in their 6-1 win on Tuesday  

With Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes and Joao Felix improvising behind him he needs to make as many decoy runs as he does runs towards goal, and he has shown himself more capable of those levels of energy and sacrifice than Ronaldo.

Ramos began playing as a forward in 2018 and a year later, in the Portugal team that lost the under 19 Euros final against Spain, he was top scorer with four goals.

The goals flowed in the UEFA Youth League and with Portugal’s Under 21s, too. ‘I still need to master automatically making the right runs,’ Ramos says of the learning curve he has been on since taking that step forward on the pitch.

That humility has pleased coach Santos too. The Portugal manager included him in his World Cup squad when Diogo Jota pulled out injured. Picking him ahead of Ronaldo on Tuesday was an even bigger call, but Ramos repaid the faith with interest by becoming the youngest player

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