Name: Dário Cassia Luís Essugo
DOB: 14.3.2005
Club: Sporting CP
Position: Midfield
Profile
Born in Odivelas, Portugal and is of Angolan descent. Essugo began his football career when he joined UDR Santa Maria at the age of 8 but it only took one impressive year by showing impressive coordination skills for Portuguese giants Sporting CP to introduce the youngster into their academy aged 9, to-date Essugo still remains with Sporting CP.
He rose through the ranks at SCP being remarkably impressive at every age group, it was evidently clear his attributes would compile with senior football. Essugo is highly thought of around while of Portugal and represented Portugal Youth at every single age group, fighting off stiff opposition. Sporting CP have produced some of the world best players over the years, Cristiano Ronaldo most famously, Luis Figo, Nani and so many more but they seem to have a new crop of talent coming through, Flávio Nazinho, Mateus Fernandes, Issahaku Fatawu, Rodrigo Ribeiro and now Dário Essugo.
Essugo signed his first professional contract on 16th March 2022 and made his professional debut in the Primeira Liga with the first team, in doing so at 16 years and 6 days, he became the youngest-ever debutant in the club's history. On 7 December 2021, Essugo became Portugal's youngest player to debut in the UEFA Champions League then he broke another club record when he surpassed Luís Figo as the youngest starter at 16 years, 11 months and 17 days.
That’s something special considering all the talent that has made its way out Sporting CP wonderful academy.
Style of Play
Essugo is a central midfielder but has the attributes to play as a box-to-box midfielder. Standing at 5,10 foot but still only 17-years-old so will more than likely grow a little too but it’s his physique that stands out beautiful wide set of shoulders with extreme muscle mass and size. Essugo is robust, strong, athletic, elite power but what stands out what most is how unbelievably well-rounded he is, he compliments those with pace, a brilliant engine of stamina and the technical ability to match. I will go as far to say he is one of my favourite defensive midfielders to watch.
Furthermore, one of his best attributes is his tackling and strength. With his sheer phenomenal stature, Essugo bulldozes he way around the pitch, bullying defenders and literally out strengthen them at ease.
Essugo likes to impose himself on the pitch, he has a frightening aura surrounding him that opponents try to avoid at all costs. The Portuguese midfielder controls the centre of the pitch, whether that be protecting his teammates, or dictating the tempo of the game which I will report later in the article.
Essugo has an exceptional knowledge of the game with fantastic spatial awareness and anticipation. He commands the pitch like a leader, for his size he’s remarkably light on his feet and uses his power to explode out the box. Utilising his phenomenal athletic style, Essugo is able to snuff out dangerous attacks before they even come to light. Essugo adopts a very aggressive and structured tackling style which opponents struggle to cope with. Essugo likes to counter press his opponents, constantly in their face and harrying them without giving them a second to think on the ball, he plays with high intensity. Essugo can really boss and become the dominant force in the centre of the pitch. Very accomplished for his age, his robust body allows him to thump into tackles as if he were made of bricks. He has the determination and size to outmuscle his opponents of the ball and won possession back for his team. The timing of his challenges are superb, he reads the body movements of opponents whilst standing his ground and forcing them to go into a direction clear from danger whilst patiently waiting for the right time to shrug them off the ball effortlessly. Once an attacker enters within a 5 meter radius of Essugo, there's no escaping. Whether he deploys a slide tackle or standing tackle, he can effortlessly just manoeuvre his opponent out off the ball with his tenacious approach and robust frame. To but his magnificent tackling into context, in the two League games Essugo has featured he averages an impressive 3 tackles per 90 with 100 percent success rate, unsurprisingly Essugo also averages 4.0 ground duels and yes, you guess it with 100 percent success rate. Absolutely colossal numbers for such an inexperienced player that exemplifies his aggressive natural to never shy away from a challenge, no matter the opponent. Essugo knows how to use his physique to his advantage and truly excels in protecting his teammates, especially the back-line. Sometimes it’s an easy day at the office when Essugo is around for defenders.
Not only is he a tackling monster, his stamina to cover a lot of ground is exceptional but balancing that with pace and excellent anticipation makes him extremely difficult to get past. He’s very proactive in his approach and looks to keep opposition attacks as safe as possible, in the minimal first team minutes so far Essugo averages 1 interception per game, this is one of the main qualities every defensive midfielder should possess. It’s crucial they’re alert to prevent any danger from flourishing. What impresses me the most is how often he’s able to retain passion and start attacking phases for his team, which leads me perfectly onto his next attributes.
Essugo isn’t just a defensive master, no, no he has amazing technical and distribution skills. He holds formidable skill set to set his team into attacking phases usually from the first phase. He distributed perfectly accurately passes into more advanced players for them to begin creating havoc further upfield. For his physical size, Essugo has very good coordination and composure on the ball. Comfortable in tight areas as he’s impressively difficult to knock of the ball and he can just bully his way through and past opposing his body and arms to shield the ball away from challengers. Once away, Essugo shows brilliant decision making to distribute the ball at the right time to the right destination, often a teammate in open spaces. You’ll often see him switch the play with a beautiful long pass, usually right to left and hitting his wide forward which completely changes the direction of attack making it even more dangerous and diffuse for the opposition to prevent as it dismantles their defensive shape.
Essugo is really complete, I mentioned above he is a box-to-box midfielder. He love to single-handedly drive his team forwards when space is available. He’s smart and illustrates bravery to catapult forwards powerfully stomping into the ground and using his powerful legs to build momentum and speed before passing the ball off to a more creative player.
Finally, technique. His technical skills are so clean, he strikes the ball gracefully and is capable of scoring breathtaking long range effort. Most recently in a Euro U-17 Championship (2022) game against France, Essugo scored a fabulous strike which are owed into the cone of the net. That campaign he was easily one of the most impressive players at the tournament.
With sublime leadership skills and a aura on the pitch, Dário Essugo holds all the attributes to become one of the worlds best defensive midfielders.
I got one love watching him play and you will too, definitely a future star.
Thank you for reading and your time.
