For Marcus Edwards, the time feels right to leave Lisbon. He has been home for three years, a period during which he has flourished as a footballer and won the Portuguese title.
Edwards, hailed as Mini Messi by Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham, came of age from Sporting Under Ruben Amorim, fulfilling much of his vast potential after leaving English football as a teenager, and has his eyes fixed on another challenge.
“I just turned 26 and I'm ready for the next phase of my career,” as he tells her. mail sport. 'My contract is up at the end of next season, and I feel it's the right time to try something different, change my environment, try something new.
I have been in Portugal for six years. It has been good for my development. I feel like I'm reaching my first years, 26, 27, 28. I'm ready for the next step and I'm looking to fight to win more trophies. I am ambitious and feel that I have a lot left to give.
Where that remains to be seen. Although the options starting to take shape in this January transfer window include the tantalizing prospect of a return to England and the chance to finally prove himself in the Premier League.
“It's always been my dream,” says Enfield-born Edwards, whose experience of senior English football equates to a League Cup debut for Spurs against Gillingham in 2016 and a Championship game loan at Norwich, before joining to Vitoria Guimaraes in 2019.
Marcus Edwards helped Sporting win the Portuguese title last season
He credits Amorim with teaching him 'High Level Soccer' and as his best coach.
Edwards joined Spurs' Vitoria Guimaraes and scored against rivals Arsenal in 2019
He scored 20 times for them, including at the Emirates against his former club's fierce Arsenal, in the Europa League, before Amorim brought him to Sporting for £6.5m in January 2022. Edwards has scored 24 times in 120 appearances in the Portuguese capital, winning, winning, winning the title last season.
'The Premier League, everyone knows it's the best in the world, so coming home and playing there with family and friends around me is something I would like to do in my career. My mind is not totally focused on it. I am open to new adventures. I am open to all the challenges that come my way.
He has proven it a lot. He was a teenage sensation who set out for big things as he made his way through the Spurs Academy. Pochettino loved his low center of gravity and his ability to beat opponents to the ball in tight spaces, but quickly regretted comparing him to Lionel Messi.
After disappointment at Norwich, he had a better loan spell at Excelsior in the Netherlands before the permanent move to Vitoria de Guimaraes in Portugal.
In October 2022, he returned in those famous sporting hoops to score against Tottenham in the Champions League and remind them of what they let go with a trademark goal, collecting the ball midway, accelerating and finding the net with lethal 20-point accuracy. yards.
He still considers him his favorite target, especially because he showed those at Spurs that he could take all that natural talent and make it effective. He attributes much of that to Amorim.
“Best coach I've ever had,” Edwards says. 'He took my game to a new level. I really got to understand high-level football when I was around him. That helped me improve my game and there are things that it implemented in me. I will carry it for the rest of my career.
'I was 23 when I came in, and the mentality of how he trains, the drills, the intensity, the running, everything, just took my game to a new level. The standards were high, and nothing slipped because you knew it would get you off the team. You had to come training every day as if it were a game.
Edwards' form for Vitoria earned him a £6.5m move to Amorim's Sporting in 2022
Edwards returned to haunt his former club in 2022, scoring for Spurs in the Champions League
The 26-year-old Enfield-born player is ready for a new challenge after almost six years in Portugal
Those words may ring a bell with Marcus Rashford, frozen out at Manchester United by the manager for a perceived lack of application and seemingly with no return as the new boss looks to instill discipline in the squad.
The approach worked for Amorim at Sporting, where he cast his spell and ended a 19-year wait for the title in 2021 and won it again last year.
“He was critical of himself,” Edwards says. 'If the team hadn't won or played well, it was looked at first before the players.
'The way he was with us and motivated us, we wanted to play for him, we wanted to win for him, we wanted to run for him, that's the kind of energy he gave us.
'It was very demanding, but the very close relationship he had with his players and the entire environment was magical in a way. The way he understood us and the club. It completely changed the club, the entire culture.
'He put Sporting back where they should be, challenging every year for the title. He will do well at Manchester United. Just give it some time.
Amorim mainly deployed him to the right of his pair of creative playmakers, behind the centre-forward in a 3-4-2-1 formation, although Edwards has not featured much since his mentor moved to Old Trafford in November.
Sporting struggled under his initial successor Joao Pereira, who was replaced within two months by Rui Borges. “It's taken time to recover,” Edwards says. 'When a manager like that leaves it's almost strange. You never think it will go away. We had a difficult patch but with the new coach and his new tactics we are coming back well.'
Edwards made just one appearance for Tottenham, in a 5-0 League Cup victory in 2016.
Mauricio Pochettino labeled Edwards (Centre) 'Mini Messi' when he was at Spurs' Academy'
Edwards (right) has been limited to just 10 appearances in all competitions this season
The disjointed season has contributed to Edwards thinking the time is right for a fresh start of his own, to take the winning mentality instilled by Amorim and try it elsewhere.
“Last season was a real eye-opener for me,” Edwards says. 'Winning the title made me much more ambitious about my own career and made me realize that the goal in football is to win trophies for the club you are at.
'Every game is essential in Sporting. Very intense. He draws and is like a bass. That's a title-winning mentality and it changes your approach to the games and it will stay with me moving forward.
'The whole experience of being here has helped me. Not just football but everyone in the Sporting building, the staff, has made me feel like I was part of the family. The whole challenge of winning the title, going into each game like a war, all those moments I will cherish. I will always be a sports fan and will always cherish my time there.'
Edwards made 49 appearances for England in the youth ranks from under-16s to under-20s, growing up in the company of Premier League stars such as Trent Alexander-Arnold, Reece James and Mason Mount.
He was part of the under 19 team in 2017 and is keen to show New England boss Thomas Tuchel he has matured into a player worthy of consideration for full international honours.
“I've always felt a sense of pride pulling on an England shirt,” says Edwards, who is also eligible for Cyprus through his mother. 'Everyone wants to play for their country and that is definitely in my sights. I'm still young in terms of my career and I'm excited to aim for the levels I know I can achieve.'