In the first matches of the new season, Sporting haven't given up on Antonio Adán, Sebastian Coates, Viktor Gyokeres, Hidemasa Morita, Gonçalo Inácio and Ousmane Diomandé... not even for a minute. These are the total players in Rúben Amorim's team so far. Pedro Gonçalves is only 20 minutes off the pace. Hjulmand (reinforced) and Nuno Santos (recovered from injury) are also expected to feature in the starting eleven from now on.

According to Notícias ao Minuto, this seems to be Sporting's 'backbone' for this season, much the same as last. The only new addition to the squad (but also the one who arrived early) is Viktor Gyokeres, who made a record transfer to Alvalade. Esgaio, Paulinho, the young Mozambican Geny Catamo and Trincão have also played in every match, but as substitutes or to make way for other colleagues.

It can't be said that Sporting's basic structure is entirely new - in fact, the main objective of the club's management has been to 'hold on' to the main players in the squad - but a better adjective might be renewed, with the reinforcements that have arrived and the series of contract extensions that Sporting's management promoted in the summer, with Gonçalo Inácio, Pedro Gonçalves and Nuno Santos standing out. More examples are being considered, such as Sebastián Coates and Ousmane Diomandé.

Rúben Amorim has already shown his satisfaction with the management of the Leonine assets, on August 17th. "They like it here. The atmosphere is very good and we've given preference to renewing the contracts of important players. The coach couldn't be happier, and now they have to keep working," he said at a press conference.

The team coached by Rúben Amorim was more depleted during the last week, due to the break in the championship for international commitments. Franco Israel, Gonçalo Inácio, Ousmane Diomande, João Muniz, Afonso Moreira, Rodrigo Ribeiro, Eduardo Quaresma, Dário Essugo, Hidemasa Morita, Morten Hjulmand, Geny Catamo and Viktor Gyokeres were on international duty.

Of this lot, Gonçalo Inácio has perhaps been the most talked about in recent days. The center-back played a key role in the national team's biggest ever win, 9-0 against Luxembourg. He scored his first two goals for the A team and kept the goal shut.

Morita played a part in Japan's 4-1 defeat of Germany, which proved fatal for Hansi Flick. He played the full 90 minutes with great intensity. In the second match, he didn't come off the bench. Newcomer Hjulmand made his debut for Denmark in qualifying for the 2024 European Championship and even had a goal disallowed (just like in Braga). Gyokeres, the other Nordic reinforcement, played for Sweden but was beaten by Belgium.

Geny Catamo played a leading role in Mozambique's qualification for the CAN finals, where Ousmane Dembélé also played for Côte d'Ivoire. He played two games in his first call-up to his country's national team and impressed the coach. Franco Israel was on the bench for Uruguay.