Fábio Carvalho has garnered widespread praise for his excellent performances for Fulham in the Championship. The 19-year-old’s contributions have helped Marco Silva’s side to the top of the league and heading towards promotion to the Premier League. A deal to Premier League giants Liverpool fell through in the last minutes of the January transfer window, interest the Merseyside club are sure to rekindle in the summer. His club situation is settled for the time being, but what about his international ambitions? Born in Portugal in 2002, Carvalho has since represented England at U16, U17 and U18 levels.
In a recent exclusive interview given to Adérito Esteves at MaisFutebol, Fábio’s father Victor Carvalho spoke about the chances of Fábio representing his country of birth.
“Fábio is the son of an Angolan father and a Madeiran mother. He was born in Portugal and is Portuguese. At the moment he doesn’t even have an English passport. He wants the Portuguese national team, that has always been his dream. We’ve been to Cidade do Futebol a few times, but they don’t show much interest”.
It doesn’t specify when the last time the Carvalho family visited the Cidade to talk with the federation, one thing is for sure, the FPF will definitely be attentive to his progress now, even more so following Jürgen Klopp’s intense pursuit of the youngster. Although he is still only 19, the federation would be wise to try and tie him down early, promoting him from England U19 international to Portugal U21 international, skipping the U20 stage entirely and putting him in the team directly beneath the senior side. Portugal has an array of talent in its national team set-up, but if Carvalho continues on this upward trajectory, he could be a player Portugal regret not selecting.
