Rio Ferdinand has hailed Marcus Edwards after the Sporting talent’s performance against Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday evening.
Tottenham played the second game of their Champions League group stage campaign on Tuesday night.
A 2-0 win over Marseille last week was a great start but Tottenham crumbled in Lisbon.
Spurs seemed to be heading towards a 0-0 draw but Paulinho and Arthur Gomes struck in added time to give Sporting a 2-0 win.
Rio Ferdinand has hailed Marcus Edwards
Tuesday’s game had an interesting situation.
Tottenham started with Eric Dier in their back line, with the 28-year-old returning to face his former club having come through the Sporting ranks.
On the Sporting side, they deployed a former Tottenham youth talent in Marcus Edwards.
Edwards, 23, came through the Spurs academy setup and was even likened to Lionel Messi by Mauricio Pochettino.
That comparison looked ridiculous when Edwards failed to impress on loan at Norwich City or Excelsior Rotterdam.
Tottenham then allowed Edwards to leave permanently, joining Vitoria de Guimaraes in Portugal.
Edwards has now finally started to realise his enormous potential.
20 goals and 14 assists in 96 games for Vitoria handed Edwards a move to Sporting earlier this year and he looks right at home.
Edwards started against Tottenham and was a real threat throughout, dribbling past Spurs players like it was nothing.
Edwards went on a – we’ll say it – Messi-like run in the first half and forced Hugo Lloris into a crucial save.
One man who was dazzled by Edwards was pundit Rio Ferdinand.
Ferdinand noted on BT Sport that Pochettino’s comparison just added too much pressure on Edwards at a very young age.
The former Manchester United ace did though add that Edwards’ dribbling past Tottenham players was ‘ridiculous’ and feels that everybody in the England setup knows all about Edwards – maybe he can become a full international one day, years after Spurs let him go.
“This is a young English player, he’s had to go away and ply his trade, he was unfairly tagged ‘the English Messi’ by Pochettino, it was too much pressure,” said Ferdinand. “This is ridiculous. Marcus Edwards man, this kid was a child superstar. Anyone in the England setup, they know about this kid,” he added.
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