Ugarte cost PSG 60 million euros. Will the Uruguayan talent fulfil his potential?

After a great season at Sporting, Manuel Ugarte got a big transfer to PSG, who had to send €60 million to Portugal for him. What potential lies in this Uruguayan midfielder?

The highly-rated midfielder was born in Montevideo, where he also started his football career. At the age of 15 years and 233 days, he made his debut in the Uruguayan league as a striker, making him the youngest debutant in the 21st century.

From CA, the Phoenix subsequently travelled to Europe when Portuguese club Famalicão paid €4.1 million for him in January 2021. By the end of the season, Ugarte had played 20 of the 21 league games, losing the only one to a card penalty.

That was enough for Sporting to say that the Uruguayan midfielder is exactly the one they want to develop further. It is now clear that the €12.5 million was definitely a well invested sum, which they have now generously recouped.

It was in 2021 that he made his debut for the Uruguayan national team, having already racked up 8 starts to date. However, he only sat on the bench at the World Cup in Qatar.

It wasn’t easy from the beginning in Sporting, but after the first months of acclimatization he started to get more and more space, and from about December he played almost every game. He also appeared in the cup final against Benfica, where he played only 7 minutes but celebrated his first major trophy.

By the next season, Ugarte was already one of Sporting’s main figures, as he ended up being undoubtedly among the team’s top five highest-rated players. He was one of the key men behind Arsenal’s Europa League playoff exit.

However, due to a card penalty, he was unable to play the opening game of the quarter-final against Juventus, which ended 1-0 in favour of the Italians, and the second leg ended in a 1-1 draw, with Ugarte assisting Sporting’s only goal.

Ugarte’s strengths

If there is one thing Ugarte excels at, it is clearly breaking up the opponent’s attacking forays. The Uruguayan midfielder can win a lot of balls and, above all, he knows how to deal with them afterwards. Last year, his pass success rate was 91.6%. He is also very good with long passes, which will definitely benefit some of the speedsters led by Kylian Mbappé.

But he is also a very valid player going forward, as he can both shoot from distance and send the final pass. In that respect, there is definitely something left in him from his earlier days when he played as a striker before he moved deeper into the midfield.

Midfielder Marco Verratti operates in a similar position at PSG, but Ugarte is a slightly more complex and, more importantly, a tighter type of player who has been compared to Liverpool’s Fabinho.

However, we’re still talking about a 22-year-old player who still has a lot of things to improve. However, how he will be able to fight his way past the experienced PSG players remains to be seen in the coming months. Luis Enrique, who certainly knows how to work with young talent, should help him in this regard.

Source: FBREF, Sporting, Transfermarkt