The 2024-25 season has been forgetful in most senses for FC Porto, but Rodrigo Mora’s emergence provides a glimpse of a brighter future on the horizon.
To say it’s been a tumultuous season for FC Porto would be a vast understatement. In what is André Villas-Boas’ first year as president of this historic club, Os Dragões are currently slumped in fourth place in the Primeira Liga table, have changed managers midway through a league campaign for the first time since the 2015-16 season, suffered UEFA Europa League elimination in the play-off round after winning just three of 10 matches, while financial difficulties led to the departures of key players in January.
However, despite the negativity surrounding the club, Porto’s fervent supporters have been given a reason to smile when visiting Estádio do Dragão lately, thanks to the standout performances of teenage sensation Rodrigo Mora.
His 11 goal involvements (8 goals, 3 assists) in just 1,044 minutes of Primeira Liga action for an otherwise unremarkable Porto outfit is a figure only Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal (18) has eclipsed this term among players under the age of 18 across Europe’s top 10 leagues.
Mora has been a shining light who, despite being just 17 years old, is almost singlehandedly carrying the club out of the darkness thanks to his majestic performances.
Hype can be a very heavy burden to bear, and in the case of Mora, it feels as though it’s enveloped his name from day one.
The gifted attacker quickly progressed through the various age groups in Porto’s academy, passing challenges with flying colours just as quickly as he was being set them.
Let’s rewind to the 2022-23 season, when a 15-year-old Mora was playing and shining for Porto’s Under-17s. Whispers had already started regarding a diminutive attacker for Porto who instantly caught the eye of anybody watching him, largely due to performances like that which he put in against Palmeiras FC (no, not that one) in October 2022. With the game goalless after 45 minutes, Mora was introduced at half-time, looking to provide a spark for his team. Porto ran out 6-0 winners, Mora scoring four of those goals within the space of 32 minutes.
The whirlwind continued. Just three months after that showstopping cameo, Mora made Portuguese football history. Aged 15 years, eight months and 10 days old, and standing at just over 5-foot-5 (1.68m), he came on as a late substitute for FC Porto B against Tondela in the Portuguese Segunda Liga. In doing so, he became the youngest ever player in Portuguese professional football history.
The following season, Mora firmly established himself in the Porto B team, making the jump from youth football to the senior men’s game, playing week in and week out against seasoned professionals. The hype continued to grow and it wasn’t long before Porto supporters began clamouring to see this prodigious talent promoted to the first team.
Vítor Bruno, initially the understudy of former boss Sérgio Conceição, was brought in as head coach and was the first manager to bring Mora into the first team fold. He gave him his debut against Bodø/Glimt in the Europa League in September, and Mora netted his first goal for Porto less than a month later, rifling home in the 88th minute against AVS aged just 17 years and 176 days old.
With each performance, Mora grew in confidence. Then, December saw him become the youngest player on record to both score and provide an assist in a single Primeira Liga game, assisting Samu Aghehowa for the opener against Moreirense before scoring the second.
But how do you follow up that calibre of performance? Well, if you’re Mora, you do the same thing a week later against your fierce city rivals Boavista, of course. First he provided an assist for now-Manchester City man Nico González in the 55th minute, before lashing home their third goal just four minutes later.
Mora was beginning to blossom in blue and white but ultimately results under Vítor Bruno weren’t good enough; after back-to-back defeats to CD Nacional and Gil Vicente, he was relieved of his duties. The highly rated Martín Anselmi was brought in from Mexican club Cruz Azul, and it’s been under the Argentine coach that Mora has really caught fire in the Portuguese top-flight.
The teenager started just three of Vítor Bruno’s 18 matches in charge of Porto, his nine appearances overall totalling 303 minutes. Under Anselmi, however, all nine of Mora’s appearances have been from the start, with the prospect already racking up a total of 706 minutes for the 39-year-old coach.
Recently, Anselmi has been setting Porto up in a 3-4-2-1 formation, with Mora operating as the right-sided number 10 behind a central striker. But he has also operated on the left of a front three this season, and as the sole number 10 in a 3-4-1-2 system.
A supremely gifted attacker, one of the most eye-catching things about Mora is his ability to make space for himself and evade challenges thanks to his superb balance, low centre of gravity and mesmerising footwork. He possesses a fantastic first touch and, as a result, has the trust of his teammates to be able to receive the ball in tight areas and progress efficiently up the pitch into dangerous positions.
It only takes a couple of minutes of watching Mora to realise this is a player of outstanding technical ability, who moves the ball gracefully with both feet.
He’s not just easy on the eye, though. Under Anselmi, he’s shown match-winning capabilities by making the right runs in the box, sniffing out chances and giving himself the best possibility of impacting the game. The teenager is no longer a player on the periphery, rather an established key cog in Anselmi’s system despite his tender age.
Since Anselmi’s first Primeira Liga match in charge of the club in February, Mora leads Porto for goals scored (5), touches in the opposition’s box (64), shots (29) and shots on target (10), while only João Mário (13) has completed more dribbles than Mora’s 12. Over the same period, he’s been involved in 48 shot-ending possession sequences, seven more than any other Porto player. That’s influence.
A criticism often levelled at younger players, particularly those in attacking roles, is they aren’t effective decision makers and lack composure in the final third. This season, though, only the outstanding Viktor Gyökeres and Mora’s teammate Aghehowa are overperforming their expected goals (xG) total to a greater degree than the teenager, who has netted his eight times from shots worth 3.97 xG.
When he’s in the penalty area, where 26 of his 35 shots and all eight of his goals this season have come from, he strikes fear into defenders due to his close control and ability to shift the ball onto either foot. There’s no clearer way of representing this than the fact his eight league goals have been evenly split between four left-footed finishes and four right-footed finishes.
He has been completely dictating matches for Porto recently, too, with it being quite often the case that if Mora plays well, Porto play well. In fact, of his last five goals in the Primeira Liga, four have been winners, more than any other Porto player this season and a tally that only three other players across the league have bettered.
Perhaps his most complete performance yet in a Porto shirt was the most recent, a 2-1 victory against Famalicão in which he scored both goals.
The first saw him receive the ball in the penalty area, twist this way, that way, and back again before firing an effort into the bottom-left corner. Granted, it was aided by a deflection, but the agility shown to make space for the shot was dazzling.
His second goal was somehow arguably even better. This time he received the ball on the right-hand side of the penalty area, feinted to go left, then right before bending a gorgeous effort into the top-far corner with his left foot.
Wonderkid pic.twitter.com/TfpnHbSA1d
— FC Porto (@FCPorto) April 18, 2025In the past few days, reports in Portugal have claimed the club are close to agreeing a new long-term deal with Mora that will run until 2030, one that’ll be signed when he turns 18 next month.
While details of his release clause remain hazy, it’s undoubtedly a hugely positive step at the end of a campaign many Porto fans will want to forget.
But if there’s any reason for 2024-25 to stick in the memory, it’ll be for the emergence of Rodrigo Mora.
Enjoy this? Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
Rodrigo Mora: FC Porto’s Shining Light in a Gloomy Season Opta Analyst.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Rodrigo Mora: FC Porto’s Shining Light in a Gloomy Season )
Also on site :