“The best midfielder in the world!” » Performance for the history books in the Champions League
Article by Daniel Grigore – Published Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 3:11 p.m. / Updated Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 3:14 p.m.
Nigel Reo-Coker, 41, speaks highly of PSG midfielder Vitinha, who produced an extraordinary performance last night in the resounding 7-2 with Bayer Leverkusen.
Winner of the treble with PSG, respectively of the Nations League with the Portuguese national team, Vitinha (25 years old) came 3rd in the 2025 Ballon d'Or ranking.
The Portuguese “engine” is working at maximum parameters in the new season as well. On Tuesday evening, in Leverkusen – PSG 2-7, he made the decisive pass in the 1-5 success and closed the table in the 90th minute, scoring the 7th goal of the Parisians.
Even more impressive is the map of Vitinha's passes: out of a total of 127 attempted passes, the Lusitanian sent 125 precisely, an accuracy of 98.4%.
Map of Vitinha's passes against Leverkusen: in red, the two wrong passes
Nigel Reo-Coker, former England midfielder with spells at West Ham, Aston Villa and Bolton, took his hat off to the European champions midfielder. Reo-Coker considers him number 1 in his position!
“The best midfielder in the world!” » Vitinha, benefit for history books
“In my opinion, Vitinha is the best midfielder in the world! He really is! When you talk about midfielders, there are different attributes that they have in modern football: some focus on the defensive phase, others focus on the offensive phase, and they will be analyzed according to their achievements.
But Vitinha is a complete midfielder. He is one of the few midfielders in the world who controls that dictate the pace of a game: when to slow it down, when to speed it up. He dictates everything, everything goes through him.
It is comfortable [cu mingea] in all areas, he makes things happen, he can score, he's not afraid to slide in, he's not afraid to drop back and recover. He's the complete midfielder!” Reo-Coker commented on CBS Sports.
Against Bayer, Vitinha had the most touches of the ball (135), completed the most long passes (7) and the second most rebounds, 7.
Vitinha is going through the best period of his career. In this beginning of the season, he boasts two goals and 5 decisive assists, and in the treble season he collected 13 decisive contributions: he scored 8 times, provided the last pass 5 times.
