Pedro Lomba Neto

Pedro Neto's breakthrough came at Lazio, where a loan spell from Braga's academy yielded the Coppa Italia in 2018/19 before he had even turned twenty. That early taste of silverware set the pattern for a career built on moving clubs at the right moment: back to Braga, then to Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2019, where he grew into a regular starter and was named Player of the Year in 2021.

That same year brought the first of two serious setbacks. A fractured patella in April 2021 was followed by an ankle ligament strain in October 2022, and between the two injuries he was sidelined for a combined 15 months, missing 123 games in total. Getting back to full fitness and form after spells out like that is rarely straightforward, and it shaped several seasons of his Wolves career.

Chelsea paid around £51.4 million to sign him in August 2024, and the move has paid off in trophies rather than statistics: he won the UEFA Conference League in his first season at Stamford Bridge, then added the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025. On the international stage, Neto made his Portugal debut in November 2020 against Andorra and marked it with a goal in a 7-0 win. He has since gone on to earn 25 caps, featuring at Euro 2024 and the 2026 World Cup, and was part of the Portugal squad that won the UEFA Nations League in 2024/25.

Neto remains a player whose story has as much to do with recovery as with the goals and trophies themselves.