Why Portugal's Ricardo Quaresma Can Make a Long-Awaited Impact at Euro 2016

His place on myriad “failed wonderkid” lists has long been assured, but there are signs that Ricardo Quaresma could finally—at the age of 32—be about to showcase his remarkable talents on the global stage.

The early success, the money-spinning move to Barcelona, the switch to Serie A, the disastrous loan to England, a spell in the United Arab Emirates—Quaresma’s career really has ticked all the boxes of a what-might-have-been story, but as he showed in Cristiano Ronaldo’s absence in Portugal’s pre-Euro 2016 win over Norway, his second coming might be his best yet.

When opening the scoring 13 minutes into the game in Porto, the Besiktas winger cut inside from the left flank and bent a stunning effort into the top corner past goalkeeper Rune Jarstein, who barely had time to react as it flashed by him.

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Change the shirt number, the hairstyle and the fact his celebration would probably have been a lot more photogenic, and this could have been Ronaldo himself, with the Portugal captain doubtless voicing his approval once he’d stopped staring at his reflection in Real Madrid’s 11th Champions League trophy—and his third—and taken in the result achieved in his absence.

It was a win capped off with goals from Raphael Guerreiro and Eder in the second half, with both strikes coming after Quaresma had departed the pitch at the Estadio do Dragao to an ovation.

His has always been a career that draws a shake of the head and utterance of what might have been when mentioned.

He arrived at Barcelona in 2003, the same summer as Ronaldinho, but whereas the Brazilian was fast approaching the peak of his powers and easily the last best player in the world in the pre-Ronaldo, Lionel Messi superhero state, Quaresma looked a little lost.

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He was 19 going on 20, and it is difficult to quantify just what effect the failure to make the grade at the Camp Nou had on a deeply complex player who is fiercely proud of his Romani roots, per an article from Sky Sports’ Kristan Heneage prior to the 2014 World Cup.

In the same piece, Heneage detailed Quaresma’s somewhat bitter parting of the ways in Catalonia, where he acknowledged he wasn’t helping himself when he criticised manager Frank Rijkaard’s tactics in public, saying:

"

I didn't have patience at Barcelona. I couldn't bear being on the bench. It was an idiotic attitude.

I made the wrong decisions at key moments in my career. I wanted everything quickly, and this only harmed me.

"

To be brutally self-aware can often be a liberating thing, and Quaresma seems to be in a good place.

Comparisons with Ronaldo have always been plentiful for a player who came through the Sporting Lisbon youth system and is a year-and-a-half older than the man who has gone on to break multiple records in football.

However, it is somewhat unfair to judge this version of Quaresma against what has gone before.

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With young, gifted players such as Renato Sanches, Joao Mario, Rafa Silva and Andre Gomes flooding through coach Fernando Santos’ squad—which is noticeably missing some old names of the past—Quaresma will have to take on a fatherly figure at the forthcoming European Championship.

So much about Portugal revolves around Ronaldo, of course, and you suspect neither party would want it any other way, but Quaresma offers an experience unlike the rest of his team-mates, and he is coming into the finals having helped Besiktas—the club he rejoined last summer—to a league title, the seventh of his career across various countries and continents.

Some players mature late, and Quaresma would appear to be the living embodiment of the fact you’ll never get anywhere without your brain working at the same rate your feet are.

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In France, you can expect to see him perhaps operating a slightly different role given the presence of Ronaldo, with that goal against Norway probably off limits because that will be the Real Madrid man’s area, but the newly crowned Champions League winner will doubtless be grateful for the presence of his team-mate.

Quaresma has come a long way from his bitter ending at Barcelona and that forgettable loan spell at Chelsea, and he seems to have a smile on his face again. Football suddenly doesn’t seem like such a chore.

If he can stay in this form for a month in France, then Portugal suddenly have a second attacking weapon everyone will be talking about.

After cameo appearances at the last two European Championships (he was overlooked for the last three World Cups), this could well be Quaresma’s time in what is surely his last major tournament.

That time is better off coming later than not at all.