The Ryan Gauld Renaissance
Ryan Gauld was Scotland’s “Mini-Messi” according to the haphazard headlines back in 2014 and after a breakout season, a blockbuster move to Portuguese powerhouse Sporting Clube de Portugal followed. Now, some six years, four loan spells and a transfer down a division later, Gauld’s turbulent spell on the Iberian peninsula is finally coming good.
09/05/2020 by Byron Hutchison
I was living in Dundee when Ryan Gauld first caught the eye in what is now a revered Dundee United side. A student at the time, the prospect of concession tickets and some, by all accounts, quality football was enough to get me through the Tannadice gates on six or seven occasions during the 2013-2014 season. Even at that early stage, Gauld’s talent wasn’t totally unknown. The then 18-year-old had already scored on his first senior start, aged 17, and had reached double figures in appearances the previous season.
Playing alongside a showman in Gary Mackay-Steven, a mercurial striker in Nadir Çiftçi, a midfield maestro in Stuart Armstrong, a future internationalist in the budding John Souttar and, even then, an undeniable Andrew Robertson. The young Ryan Gauld stood out; his immaculate first touch, his spellbinding close control, his eye for a through-ball and his savant-like ability to weight each one just right. He was special. I distinctly remember watching him from my seat at the half-way line, on a typically drab October afternoon, pick the ball up on the inside-right channel, shift it a few yards on to his left foot and slam it into the top corner from all of 25-yards against St Mirren. His giddy celebration as his teammates held him aloft serving as the only reminder that it was he who was in fact, the boy amongst men on that day.
That game marked the start of a sensational run of form for both Dundee United and Gauld. A spell from October to December 2014 that saw the Tangerines go seven-matches unbeaten with the young prospect netting four goals and laying on six assists, despite playing in just six of the aforementioned fixtures. Links to Real Madrid ran rampant and rumours of Manchester United and Liverpool scouts descending on Tannadice to catch a glimpse of Scotland’s next superstar began to drift from Hilltown to Perth Road as the season progressed. Ultimately, Gauld’s breakout campaign culminated in heartbreak as Dundee United suffered a Scottish Cup final defeat to St Johnstone. By that time, however, his stock had already peaked and in the summer a headline-grabbing £3,000,000 move to Portugal was sealed.
Lisbon’s Latest Lion
Expectations were high, both in Scotland and Portugal upon Gauld’s arrival in Lisbon. The general consensus being that this was a bold and intelligent move for the young playmaker. His small stature and technical style - crafted by fellow Scot Ian Cathro, lest we forget - would be better suited to the Portuguese game thought most. Couple that with his new club’s track-record for producing talent - think Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo and new team-mate Nani. And it was agreed, Gauld was on the path to greatness. Sporting’s boss at the time, Marco Silva, believed he had a talent on his hands too.
The much-reported £48,000,000 buy-out clause aside, Silva made his feelings clear in early September by naming Gauld in his 25-man Champions League squad. Throughout his first season in Europe’s second oldest capital city, Gauld’s progress was promising. Racking up 26 appearances in LigaPro for the Leões reserves - Sporting CP B, alongside the likes of Gelson Martins and Daniel Podence. He would also excel for the first-team in the Taça da Liga (League Cup), bagging himself a brace against Belenenses SAD and putting in a man-of-the-match display against Porto’s other top-flight outfit, Boavista. His two Liga Nos appearances in the second half of the campaign provided the icing on the cake of what was a solid first 12 months. That early growth, however, would be stunted the following season.
Even though he had lifted the Taça de Portugal (The Portuguese Cup) - the club’s first silverware in six years, Marco Silva was unceremoniously sacked on June 4th, 2015. The reason cited by Sporting at the time was farcical and indicative of the turmoil that would envelop the club for the remainder of Gauld’s contract. Silva’s failure to wear the official club suit during a match six months prior was the given justification. It didn’t take long for the club’s true rational to come to the fore. Jorge Jesus, boss of cross-town rivals Benfica, fresh from winning back-to-back league and cup doubles was ready to jump ship. In the face of Silva’s relative success, the Sporting board thought that to dismiss him was the correct course of action if they were to see the Portuguese title return to the Estádio José Alvalade.
Jesus was unveiled as the new Sporting manager on June 5th, 2015, just one day after Silva’s dismissal. He had been brought in to win-now and this saw a shift in focus for the club renowned for its youth development. Sporting acquired the likes of Alberto Aquilani (31), Teófilo Gutiérrez (30) and Bryan Ruiz (29) that summer. Gauld would make a further 38 LigaPro appearances for Sporting CP B in the 2015-16 season - an experience which he has since spoken fondly of. His involvement with the first-team, however, was noticeably reduced. Limited to a solitary 90-minute stint on the bench during an early-season cup match.
From The Tagus To The Duoro
English Championship club’s circled in June 2016 as it became apparent that Gauld, now aged 20, having spent two seasons honing his craft in the reserves and in search of first-team football, was available on a temporary basis. Traversing the River Tagus, he embarked on his first loan spell in July - joining Primeira Liga side Vitória de Setúbal, just south of Lisbon. Gauld struggled to adapt to top-flight Portuguese football initially, even if he had trained regularly with the first-team while at Sporting. Enduring two months fluctuating between warming the bench and being omitted from the squad entirely before he could don his new number 44 jersey in Setúbal. After a 90-minute showcase and a convincing victory in the Taça da Liga (The Portuguese League Cup), the attacking midfielder began to see minutes in the Primeira Liga, albeit in a slightly deeper role.
The positional change was noticeable, switching from his guise as a free-roaming advanced playmaker where he had excelled for Dundee United to that of a facilitator in a midfield trio. A Carrilero in Football Manager parlance. Collecting the ball from deep and distributing it to the sides more attacking players. While the change affected Gauld’s chances of appearing in Vitória’s preferred 4-3-3 system positively - earning seven starts between October and December - his attacking edge, as is to be expected when playing in that deeper role, blunted.
Positional changes aside, Gauld was enjoying his best spell of top-flight football since his days in Dundee. Vitória sat 9th in Liga Nos, comfortably, no, exactly, mid-table and with a real chance of reaching the Taça da Liga semi-finals. The club’s cup fate would be decided in their first game after the winter break. Vitória needing a win and their opponents only a draw to advance from the group stages. In an all-or-nothing tie against none other than Sporting. Facing the mite of William Carvahlo, Bryan Ruiz and Bas Dost, and with Gauld confined to the stands, cup-tied. A valiant Vitória came out the victors. A 94th-minute penalty enough to earn them a 2-1 win, the side from the “wrong side” of the Tagus were through - but not without controversy. The penalty decision was generous, soft, some might say and Sporting took exception. Manager Jesus and goalkeeper Beto each earning post-game red cards for their protests.
The following day Ryan Gauld and his fellow Sporting loanee at Vitória - right-back André Geraldes - received a call. They were to return to Lisbon. Sporting had spitefully cancelled their loans. Geraldes and Gauld returned to their parent club immediately. Gauld would make nine more appearances for the reserves in the Portuguese second-tier that season.
“We would have loved to have kept him this season and he would have helped us greatly. What’s happened has done no one any good - not for the player or us as a club.”
It was clear, by the summer of 2017 that first-team opportunities in Lisbon would again be sparse and Gauld wasted no time seeking another loan. The Portuguese adventure continued as he moved north of the Duoro to Primeira Liga newcomers Desportivo Aves in the provincial town of Vila das Aves. Things started brightly enough for the Scotsman and by September he had forced his way into the starting eleven. Gauld’s first Primeira Liga goal came the following week, netting against Belenenses SAD, the same side he had scored a cup brace against two years prior. A mere eight-minutes into his third consecutive start, however, Gauld was sidelined with a hamstring injury that saw him miss six crucial weeks. Aves, having picked up just one win from nine matches, parted ways with head coach Ricardo Soares before Gauld’s return in a move that would derail his season. All but one of his subsequent 13 league appearances for Aves in the 2017-18 season came from the bench.
Despite Gauld’s personal frustrations, his season at Desportivo Aves would go down as the finest in the club’s history. Finishing 13th and avoiding top-flight relegation for the first time, having failed to maintain Primeira Liga status in four previous attempts. They also went on to claim the Taça de Portugal, the first major honour in their 87-year history, defeating - you guessed it - Sporting, in the final. Gauld’s contribution to the cup-run wasn’t insignificant either. During Aves’ convincing 5-1 victory in the round of 16, he grabbed himself an assist while playing the full 90-minutes before converting a penalty in a nerve-wracking quarter-final shootout against Rio Ave. Although he didn’t feature in either of the semi-final legs or the cup final itself, the Aberdonian was with the squad on the day of the final. Lifting the trophy and earning a medal for his four previous appearances during the historic run.
Back in Lisbon, the cup defeat rubber-stamped the end of a traumatic week for Gauld’s parent club. Sporting, on the final day of the top-flight season and in need of a victory to secure Champions League football, lost. The next day a group of an estimated 50 ultras clad in balaclavas stormed the club’s training centre in Alcochete, vandalising the facility while assaulting players and staff members indiscriminately. The attack made global headlines. Their cup defeat to dinky little Desportivo Aves five days later served as the final nail in the coffin of Jorge Jesus’ tempestuous two-year reign.
Home Away From Home
Things would take time to settle in Lisbon following their nightmare season finale and backroom staff exodus. The progress of their one-time prodigy had fallen into the periphery, omitted from Sporting’s pre-season squad; Gauld, once again, sought temporary refuge. The Algarve soon came calling when newly-promoted second-tier side, Sporting Clube Farense approached Sporting and a loan move was agreed. When quizzed about dropping a division, Gauld remained resolute.
“I don’t consider this move a step down for me. Farense are a big club and the president, Joao Rodrigues and the manager, Rui Duarte, spoke to me about their project and ambitions and it’s very exciting.”
The 22-year-old Gauld put the slow starts that had plagued previous loan stints behind him. He settled in Faro quickly, making his first start for the club on matchday six and remaining a fixture in the side until Christmas. Farense’s preferred midfield pairing of Vanja Markovic and Fabrico Isidoro forced the natural middle-man into yet another role. Their 4-4-2 system saw Gauld play almost exclusively as a right-midfielder, where, again, he adapted. His attacking prowess went under-utilised to some degree as he failed to muster up a single assist during his spell on the flank. His consistent, reliable performances coupled with his exemplary effort, however, kept Gauld’s name etched on coach Duarte’s team sheet.
Gauld’s brightest moment of the season would come in the final game of 2018, scoring his only two goals of the campaign - including a stunning half volley - in a 5-1 rout of U.D. Oliveirense. Farense began 2019 in 7th place, not bad for a newly promoted side. But by January 11th, Gauld had been recalled by Sporting and sent home to Scotland, Hibernian having secured his services for the second half of the season. The move brought Gauld to the forefront of Scottish football for the first time since 2014 and had fans of all allegiances curious to see what had become of the one-time wonderkid.
Sadly for Gauld and football fans across Scotland, his stay in the capital - through no fault of his own - was forgettable. Ravaged by a hamstring injury for several months he would appear in just 371 minutes of action for the Hibees, recovering in time to make one final appearance in a defeat to Rangers, before returning to Portugal. The side Gauld left behind in Faro struggled in his absence, plummeting from 7th to as low as 16th. Two consecutive wins in the final few weeks of their season saw them survive the drop and eventually scramble to 10th, in what was a tightly packed LigaPro table.
Gauld found himself at a career crossroads in 2019. An optimistic few - myself included - had hoped that Sporting’s latest incumbent Marcel Keizer would give him a chance. After all, the Dutchman had a track record of developing talent: Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt and Justin Kluivert all spent time under his tutelage while at Jong Ajax. But with one year remaining on his six-year-mega-deal, Sporting made it clear; Gauld was free to find a new club.
Public sentiment in Scotland had soured on Gauld - unfairly so in many cases, with few knowing the ins and outs of his time in Portugal. Most have judged his career on his inability to break into Sporting’s first-team and what little they saw of him at Hibernian. It is curious, then, that the same sentiment isn’t shared among fans of Sporting. Given it was their club who made Gauld the most expensive signing of their 2014 summer transfer window. Many in Lisbon see Gauld as a lost talent, a player criminally over-looked by a series of Sporting managers, a prospect in the right club, at the wrong time. Something which has been echoed with more and more frequency in recent months.
Faro’s Rampant Lion
Speculation was rife back home in Scotland, moves to the likes of Rangers and home-town club Aberdeen however, never materialised. Instead, it would be Gauld’s Portuguese connections that would provide him with his first post-Sporting landing spot. André Geraldes, - not to be confused with Gauld’s previously mentioned team-mate of the same name - a former director at Sporting had taken up the role of CEO at Farense in November 2018 while Gauld was on loan at the Algarve club. It was Geraldes who called Gauld to make him aware of Farense’s interest in signing him permanently.
The decision was a simple one for the Scotsman who is now fluent in Portuguese and eligible for Portuguese citizenship. Gauld had bought into the club’s ambition prior to his initial loan spell and during his time in Faro found he enjoyed the football, the golf and the general way of life on the Algarve. On July 15th 2019 he signed permanently with the Leões de Faro (Lions of Faro).
In spite of a managerial change since Gauld’s last appearance for the club, he began life at Farense as he left it, on the flank in a 4-4-2. New boss Sérgio Vieira and team wasted no time in ascending to the top of LigaPro this season and Gauld served as an important cog in the wheel of that early success. Farense won nine of their first eleven matches to kickstart the campaign with Gauld - who missed the start of the season with a broken rib - playing in 80 minutes or more of the seven games he was available for.
His position in the team morphed from game-to-game and by October he found himself fluctuating between a role on the wing of a 4-4-2 or in the centre of the attack as a free-roaming playmaker in a 4-4-1-1. Individual statistics began to reflect the Scotsman’s performances and more advanced role as he notched back-to-back assists in the league and a further two in the Taça de Portugal. Gauld’s first goal of the season came during a 3-1 victory in November. Pouncing on a loose ball before dinking it over the on-rushing Varzim S.C. goalkeeper from close range.
It hasn’t been all plain sailing however, at the turn of the year, Farense hit a rocky patch. An injury to Brazilian midfielder Fabrício Isidoro seemingly the catalyst for a downturn in form. Isidoro’s absence forced Farense to deploy Gauld deeper in midfield. Missing their midfield anchor and without Gauld’s creativity further forward, the Algarvian’s won just once in their first five-games without Isidoro - scoring a single goal while conceding seven.
The Leões form would show signs of recovery on matchday 18 against LigaPro basement-dwellers Casa Pia AC. Vieira’s side took to the field depleted by injury, missing both club captain Cássio Scheid as well as Isidoro - who regularly serves as vice-captain. On the day, it was Gauld who, for the first time in his career, would be entrusted with the armband. A revitalised Farense took the lead in the first half through winger Arnold Issoko. Before, in the 93rd minute, captain Gauld secured the points. Darting into the right-hand side of the penalty area to receive the ball from veteran striker Fabrício Simões before quickly shuffling it onto his right foot and striking low, across the goalkeeper. The goal, his second of the campaign, would ignite an incredible run of form - Gauld’s best since the one triggered by that wonder strike against St Mirren, on a gloomy day in 2014.
A defeat to high-flying Estoril followed before, in a draw with FC Porto’s B side, Gauld once again scored. Isidoro returned to the squad for the subsequent match and while he would reclaim the armband from Gauld, his presence allowed Sérgio Vieira to restore the Scotsman to his more natural role behind the striker. Gauld claimed an assist in a 3-1 win over UD Oliveirense, before going on to score a brace against Vilafranquense the following week.
His short stint as captain appears to have had an effect on the diminutive playmakers overall game. Both during and since his spell with the armband Gauld has played with a newfound maturity and confidence, grabbing games by the horns and leading by example, often driving his team to results single-handedly.
On February 29th, against Académico Viseu FC, he scored his first career hattrick. His leadership and composure on full display as he stepped up and dispatched not one, but two spot-kicks either side of a near-post diving header to rally the Leões back from a 1-0 deficit. Just one week later, for the seventh time in five outings, Gauld would again leave his mark on the scoresheet as Farense looked to their star-man to dig out a result. Trailing 1-0 to northerners Leixões SC with just seven minutes remaining, midfielder Hugo Seco found Gauld lurking at the edge of the box and with a confident sweep of his left foot, he looped the ball into the top right-hand corner. It was Gauld’s finest goal of the season and such was his confidence, he reeled off in celebration before the net had even rippled.
Scotland’s Ryan Gauld
If you’ve lost count - and I’d forgive you if you have - that’s a five-game stretch in which Gauld scored seven goals and provided one assist, for a total of eight goal contributions. A tally that could only be matched by two other Scotsman (playing in a first or second division) over a five-game spell in the 2019-20 season; Lawrence Shankland and Kevin Nisbet. Two players who, like Gauld, were playing in a second-tier league - the Scottish Championship - but who, unlike Gauld, are out and out strikers.
It is disappointing if not unsurprising that while Nisbet was linked with a big-money move to Rangers (before finally moving to Hibernian for a six-figure sum) and Shankland is not only playing but scoring for the Scotland national team. Gauld remains a peripheral figure in the Scottish football zeitgeist, despite his undeniable form. Perhaps it’s because he is less accessible, in far off Portugal? Or maybe the quality of the Portuguese second division doesn’t stand up to the Scottish Championship for some? Who knows. In any case, while there, Gauld can only beat what is in front of him and in 2020, he beat LigaPro to a pulp.
The postponement of football worldwide due to Covid-19 and the on-going global pandemic, couldn’t have come at a worse time for both the Scotsman and his club. Farense sat comfortably within an automatic promotion spot and just two points behind first place CD Nacional. While Gauld was enjoying his finest run of form to date. Uncertainty continues to surround both football and life in general at the time of writing, with governing bodies and football associations around the world scrambling to come up with contingency plans. On May 5th, however, the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional - or LPFP - announced that the 2019/2020 LigaPro season was over and that the current standings would be taken as final. Farense and Gauld have been promoted. The club and the player’s fine season, justly rewarded.
Promotion to the Primeira Liga will see Gauld play at the highest level he has ever played at should the 2020/2021 season go ahead as hoped. The Portuguese top-flight currently ranks 6th on UEFA’s country coefficient list, just one spot behind France’s Ligue 1 and eight places above the Scottish Premiership, which itself has seen a significant jump in its ranking over the past 12 months. The chance to play against the likes of FC Porto, SL Benfica and of course, Sporting, is one the relentless Gauld will surely relish. One would hope it may provide him with the platform to finally stake a claim for the Scottish national team as well.
Regardless of Farense’s now confirmed promotion, Gauld’s LigaPro performances will have undoubtedly had him on the radar of many a top-flight side. The initial deal that took the Scotsman to Faro is set to see him remain with the Leões until the summer of 2021 - or potentially 2022, with the club smartly including the option for a one-year extension. The £3.6 million release clause that was also agreed to, however, may yet tempt some of the countries big-hitters to take a swing on Gauld. With the 24-year-old talisman now approaching his peak footballing years.
While The dream of one day finding a Caledonian Messi clone with a Scots accent slaloming past defenders on a marshy field in a provincial Scottish town may live on for some. Here, in reality, where the realisation that Gauld may not be the next Lionel Messi was enough for many to write him off. His emergence as the first Ryan Gauld is enough for me. A talented, tenacious, technical marvel, who is only just beginning to show the world exactly what he is capable of.