Pedro Lomba Neto (born 9 March 2000) is a Portuguese professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a winger for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

and the Portugal national team. He started his career at

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

, who loaned him to Italian club

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in the summer of 2017. In 2019, he signed with Wolverhampton Wanderers. A former Portugal international at youth level, Neto made his full debut in November 2020, scoring in his first match.

Club career

Braga

Born in

Viana do Castelo Viana do Castelo () is a municipality and seat of the district of Viana do Castelo in the Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 88,725, in an area of 319.02 km². The urbanized area of the municipality, comprising the city, ...

, Neto joined

's youth system at the age of 13. On 7 May 2017, whilst still a junior, he made his professional debut with their reserves, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 2–3 home loss against Porto B in the Segunda Liga. The following weekend, in his first

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

appearance with the first team, he scored after only a few minutes on the pitch, helping the hosts defeat already relegated

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

4–0 and becoming the club's youngest ever goal scorer in the competition. On 31 August 2017, both Neto and teammate Bruno Jordão were loaned to

of Italy for two years, with an obligation to buy both players for a combined

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26 million. He only played his first match in

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

on 27 January 2019, replacing

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in the last-minute of the 1–2 home loss to

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

Wolverhampton Wanderers

On 2 August 2019, Neto signed with

. He made his debut twelve days later in the second leg of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

third qualifying round against Pyunik, scoring and providing an

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for Morgan Gibbs-White in a 4–0 home win (8–0 aggregate). His maiden appearance in the

took place a few days later in the same month, when he came on for compatriot

Diogo Jota Diogo José Teixeira da Silva (born 4 December 1996), known as Diogo Jota (), is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward or a winger for Premier League club Liverpool and the Portugal national team. Jota started his care ...

late on in the 1–1 home draw with

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. Neto's first league start occurred on 28 September 2019, when he assisted Matt Doherty's opening goal in a 2–0 victory over

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

at Molineux. After having what would have been his first goal in the competition ruled out controversially by

VAR Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var (department), a department of France * Var (river), France * Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran * Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

on 29 December, he scored in the next game (a 2–1 away loss to Watford on 1 January 2020), becoming the first teenager to achieve the feat for the club in the Premier League in the process. On 4 October 2020, Neto scored his first league goal for Wolves in the 2020–21 season in the 1–0 home defeat of

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

. A month later, he extended his contract to 2025. Neto was

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

player of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

in a league game with

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

on 29 November 2020, in which he scored once and set up

Daniel Podence Daniel Castelo Podence (born 21 October 1995) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Wolverhampton Wanderers. He started his career with Sporting CP, appearing in 40 competitive matches and also being loaned to ...

for his team's second goal in the game as they ran out 2–1 winners in their first away victory against that opposition since 1979. He suffered a serious knee injury in the first half of the 1–0 away defeat of Fulham on 9 April 2021, which ruled him out for the remainder of that season and the bulk of

the following ''The Following'' is an American crime thriller television series created by Kevin Williamson, and jointly produced by Outerbanks Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television. The first season follows former FBI agent Ryan Hardy ( Kevin Bacon) ...

. He finally returned on 20 February 2022, as a second-half substitute in a 2–1 home win over

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

. On 9 March 2022, Neto's 22nd birthday, he agreed to a new deal running until 2027. On 22 May, the last day of the campaign, he scored his first goal for the club since his injury, opening an eventual 3–1 loss at Liverpool in the third minute. Neto made his 100th competitive appearance on 17 September 2022, in a 0–3 home defeat against

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

. The following month, he suffered an ankle injury that required surgery and sidelined him for several months.

International career

On 5 September 2019, aged 19, Neto won his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for Portugal at under-21 level, playing the first half of a 4–0 win against

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in the 2021 UEFA European Championship qualification campaign, held in

Alverca do Ribatejo Alverca do Ribatejo () is a city (''cidade'') and a former civil parish in the municipality of Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Alverca do Ribatejo e Sobralinho. It covers an area of and had a pop ...

. On 5 November 2020, he had his first call-up to the senior team, for matches against

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...

and

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. He debuted on 11 November in a 7–0 home friendly win over the former, scored the first goal and became the first player born in the 2000s to represent the nation. Neto was ruled out of the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

, due to an injury suffered with his club.

Personal life

Neto's uncle, Sérgio Lomba, was also a footballer.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Portugal score listed first, score column indicates score after each Neto goal.''

Honours

Lazio *

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

: 2018–19

References

External links

*
Portuguese League profile
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Neto, Pedro 2000 births Living people People from Viana do Castelo Sportspeople from Viana do Castelo District Portuguese footballers Association football wingers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players S.C. Braga B players S.C. Braga players Serie A players S.S. Lazio players Premier League players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Portugal youth international footballers Portugal under-21 international footballers Portugal international footballers Portuguese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in England Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Italy Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in England