HE’S WIDELY REGARDED as one of Europe’s hottest prospects and now Ruben Neves has etched his name into Champions League history.
The midfielder has become the youngest captain in the competition’s history after pulling on the armband for Porto’s clash against Maccabi Tel-Aviv tonight.
At the age of just 18 years and 221 days, Neves breaks the record previously held by CSKA Moscow goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev.
Incidentally, he set the record in November 2006 against Porto as a 20-year-old.
Neves has graduated through the Porto youth ranks having joined the club at just eight and he has represented Portugal at all underage levels.
He made his first-team debut in August 2014 and then featured in the Champions League five days later to become the youngest Portuguese player to make an appearance in the competition.
He was 17 years and five months old when he came on during the play-off round tie against Lille.
Porto have taken four points from their opening two games in Group G and currently lead the Israeli side 2-0 thanks to two first-half goals.
