Welcome to the longer term: Endrick delivers a preview displaying of historical past to go away Brazil salivating

If there may be one factor you’ll be able to say about Endrick, Brazil’s match-winner on a soporific spring night time at Wembley, it’s that he doesn’t hold round ready. Timetables and calendars imply nothing to him. There are solely two instances on his inner clock: now and subsequent.

Endrick was the standout player at Brazil’s biggest under-20 tournament at the age of 15. He made his senior debut for Palmeiras in October 2022, two months after his sixteenth birthday. By the tip of that 12 months, he had received a Brazilian championship medal — he has since added one other to his assortment — and signed for Real Madrid.

That’s an entire lot of nice leaps ahead. You’d inform him to decelerate if he didn’t preserve sticking the touchdown.

After some time, this stuff generate their very own momentum. So it was on Saturday night, when the mere sight of him on the touchline, shirt tucked into his shorts like an Edwardian schoolboy, prompted a ripple of anticipation among the many Brazil followers. At 17, he’s already the proprietor of a palpable star aura; blur your eyes only a contact and you may virtually see the celestial glow of potential and risk.

This was not his senior worldwide debut. He got here off the bench in a World Cup qualifier in opposition to Colombia in November and did so once more in opposition to Argentina 5 days later. It was, nevertheless, his first ever match in Europe — a chance to formally introduce himself on what Brazilians name the outdated continent.

They are saying you solely get one probability to make a primary impression. Endrick buried his, following up after Vinicius Junior’s shot was saved by Jordan Pickford and knocking the ball into the empty web. It was no masterpiece however the sense of lift-off, of expertise unshackled by the same old legal guidelines, was unmistakable.

It felt for all of the world like a preview displaying of historical past.

We should, in fact, train a bit of warning right here. Some 17-year-old prodigies make good on their potential; many extra don’t. For each Vinicius Jr, there’s a Jean Chera or a Lulinha, gamers whose teenaged brilliance didn’t translate into success at senior degree. Whereas Endrick can already declare to have achieved extra within the recreation than these two examples, his elevated standing — particularly outdoors Brazil — implies that he additionally has additional to fall already.

Nonetheless, it’s troublesome to not be swept up by Endrickmania. For one factor, he’s only a pretty footballer, equal components miniature battering ram and phantom menace, able to each pulling down the entrance door and sneaking within the again. He’s not a strolling YouTube highlights package deal like, say, Neymar was at his age — he’s additionally, frankly, not fairly pretty much as good as Neymar was — however he’s unusually full. Nonetheless enhancing, too.

That, coupled with some PR work that straddles the road between savvy and cynical (working example: his endearing however puddle-deep assertion of admiration for, err, Sir Bobby Charlton in his post-match interview), has received him a big fanbase. A broad one, as effectively: he is a rare player who seems to transcend club affinities in Brazil. You don’t should be a Palmeiras fan to fall in love with Endrick.

A few of that is most likely circumstantial. A whole lot of the joy about Endrick boils right down to what he may do — and characterize — for the nationwide group. It’s now a very long time since Brazil have had a genuinely world-class striker. Richarlison, nominally the incumbent in that place, is an effective participant with a powerful aim return for his nation, however you wouldn’t put him within the very high class. The identical is true of Gabriel Jesus, who has carried out most of his finest work within the yellow jersey from the proper wing.

Endrick shouldn’t be but able to be Brazil’s first-choice No 9. However the pace of his progress has been such that you wouldn’t guess in opposition to him making the place his personal inside the 12 months. Being at Actual Madrid — he finally moves there in July — will solely add contemporary layers to his recreation, even when Kylian Mbappe’s anticipated arrival might prohibit his enjoying time.

That, although, comes later. For now he can benefit from the sugar-sweet current and bask within the mirrored mild of a aim that doubled as an affirmation.

“I’m nonetheless getting my head round it,” he stated after the ultimate whistle. “I’m not the sort of one that cries usually, however I’m holding it again now. I’m actually completely satisfied.”

That chimed along with his celebration, which was that of a person — a boy, actually — who recognised the load of the second, nevertheless obliquely.

It doesn’t matter what he goes on to attain in his profession, irrespective of what number of worlds he conquers, Endrick won’t ever have a second fairly like this once more.

(High photograph: Jack Thomas – WWFC/Wolves by way of Getty Pictures)