Since making the move from Porto to Leicester City, Ricardo Pereira has only continued to dazzle from right back, and has very much become one of the most highly regarded right backs in all of world football.
The Leicester City man is the perfect depiction of what a modern-day full back should be; comfortable on the ball, sufficiently energetic and tenacious to get forwards at every opportunity, adept at both dribbling and crossing, and incredibly capable defensively too.
There isn’t really a gap in Ricardo Pereira’s game. As far as footballers go, he’s pretty much perfect. And as far as right backs go, even more so.
It says a lot about the quality Portugal have had at right back over the last few years that Pereira has only played for Portugal on 7 occasions; he wasn’t part of Portugal’s victorious Euro 2016 squad, a tournament which came just a year or two too early for him, nor was he part of Portugal’s triumphant Nations League team of 2019, while he only played a single match for Portugal at the 2018 World Cup - the 2-1 loss to Uruguay.
And it’s no huge surprise. With the likes of Joao Cancelo and Nelson Semedo also competing for game time for their country, Ricardo has previously found it incredibly difficult to break into the Portugal national team - but if you’re failing to make the Portugal squad, let alone the starting lineup, can you really be deemed world class?
The fact of the matter is, though, Ricardo has only been getting better and better - and has now fully established himself as Portugal’s starting right back, ahead of Cancelo, who Manchester City paid £60million for last summer, and Barcelona’s starting right back Nelson Semedo, which says all you need to know about how good - and, perhaps even more importantly, consistent - he’s been since moving to England.
He was set to miss out on a place in Portugal’s Euro 2020 squad, though, due to the long-term injury he sustained last month. That it’s been delayed to the summer of 2021 therefore vastly improves Portugal’s chances of retaining their title, as Ricardo Pereira will be that much of an asset to the national side.
Ultimately, in Cancelo and Nelson Semedo, Portugal probably boast two of the top 10 best right backs in all of world football. They are both, in their own right, worthy of being called world class right backs. Ricardo Pereira, however, is currently better than both of them, and there is therefore no question that he is a truly world class footballer. The more pertinent questions is, is he the very best in world football right now?
There’s certainly a case to be made that he is, indeed, the very best in his field. There are only a handful of players that even come close. Trent Alexander-Arnold is, of course, one player that is deservedly touted as the best in the world right now, and who could really argue with that. What you could say, though, is Ricardo may well be more rounded, with perhaps a superior defensive game than the Liverpool favourite.
Real Madrid’s Dani Carvajal is also up there, as is Pavard. Kyle Walker too. But Ricardo Pereira is better than all three of them. You could even argue Nelson and Cancelo are as well.
It really comes down to a discussion between Trent, Ricardo and Bayern man Joshua Kimmich, though he rarely plays as a right back nowadays, bringing us back to the two Premier League based stars. There’s no need to get into a debate as to who is better, that is an article in itself perhaps for another time, but the fact is that there is simply no denying Ricardo Pereira is a world class footballer.
Is he world class? Uncategorically, yes.