With the 2019/20 La Liga Santander season having come to a close, Francisco Antonio Machado Mota Castro Trincao – more commonly known as Trincao – is now a Barcelona player. The transfer, which was initially announced in January, sees the Portuguese forward finally arriving during this last week of August in La Liga for an estimated €31 million and on a contract with a €500 million release clause.
The sizeable fee, which raised eyebrows among many fans who had never even heard of the 20-year-old, shows just how highly Barca rate the youngster. So, just who is Trincao and what has he done to earn such a big money move?
Trincao was born in December 1999 in Viana do Castelo, in the north of Portugal. Despite a turbulent youth career, in which he bounced back and forth between his hometown club Vianense, Porto and Braga, he eventually settled in Braga and made his senior debut for Braga B in Portugal’s second tier in April 2016, aged just 16 years, three months and four days.
The youngster took serious steps forward in 2017/18, playing 30 times for Braga B, scoring five goals and providing five assists. His impressive performances led to a promotion to the first team midway through the 2018/19 campaign, with his debut coming in December 2018, a day before his 19th birthday. Even though he didn’t score his first first-team goal until almost a year later, Trincao quickly made his mark on the team with his speed and tricky dribbling, drawing in scouts from Europe’s top clubs.
Scouts from across the continent had had their eyes on Trincao since the 2018 UEFA Under-19 Championship, a tournament in which he scored five goals and provided three assists to propel Portugal to a 4-3 AET win over Italy in the final. Along with his teammate Jota, Trincao was the joint-top scorer ahead of other talents who have gone on to achieve great success such as Erling Haaland, Nicolo Zaniolo and Moise Kean.
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Even if Trincao hadn’t really replicated that goalscoring ability at club level before his move to Barcelona was announced in January of this year, he has started putting the ball in the back of the net with great frequency in 2020. Eight of the 15 senior goals he’s scored as a professional have come in 2020, all the more impressive when considering the three-month coronavirus break.
The 20-year-old has proven that he can create goals and chances too, scoring eight goals and then setting up eight more in Portugal this past season: an average of one direct goal contribution every 101 minutes.
Then there’s his ability to contribute in defensive play. He has proved himself a hard worker and willing to track back to cover the space often left behind his right-wing position in the 3-4-3 formation that Braga have used for much of the season. Barca coach Ronald Koeman will be delighted to have seen Trincão display such versatility by playing in so many different positions. Not only has the Portuguese delivered from his favoured right wing, from which he likes to cut inside onto his preferred left foot, but he has also played on the left wing, as a No.9, as a secondary striker and even in central midfield – something which will be crucial in an attacking line with as many moving parts as Barcelona’s. Trincao has also displayed much more tactical maturity than most players his age, having already worked with five different coaches since his rise to the Braga first team.
Since his signing with FC Barcelona was confirmed, Trincao has been taking Spanish classes twice a week in order to help with his transition into the Camp Nou dressing room. There, he’ll even find various Portuguese speakers such as Neto and Nelson Semedo, while Antoine Griezmann – who has Portuguese heritage on his mother’s side – even sent Trincao a message in Portuguese to welcome him to the club.
Braga president Antonio Salvador has predicted that Trincao will come to define an era at Barcelona. Barcelona and La Liga fans will be delighted if he can live up to those lofty expectations.
