Who is Arsenal's 17-year-old Sporting Lisbon target Joelson Fernandes?

Reports in Portugal suggest that Arsenal are the front-runners to sign 17-year-old Sporting Lisbon sensation Joelson Fernandes. This comes as a huge surprise given that he has a €45 million release clause.

The forward is regarded as one of the brightest prospects in the Sporting Lisbon academy at the moment and, although he made his first-team debut only after the restart, has already been dubbed as the next Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese is a left-winger and can also play as a wing-back and on the right side as well and signing him would finally allow Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to play in his preferred center forward position.

This would also see Arsenal boast of one of the most lethal attacks along with Nicolas Pepe on the right side and Arsenal would finally have a traditional left-winger, something they have been missing for a long time.

But who exactly is Joelson Fernandes?

Joelson Fernandes was born in Bissau and has football in the family with his brother a part of the Sporting Lisbon academy as well, while his father was part of the club's youth setups. He began his footballing education at local club Academia Valusa do Bairro Militar.

The youngster broke Cristiano Ronaldo's record for the youngest Sporting Lisbon debutant at 17 years, four months, and three days in a 2-1 win over Gil Vicente. He has also gone on to represent Portugal at Under-15, U16, and U17 levels while playing well above his age group domestically.

Before the restart, Joelson Fernandes only played for the Sporting Under 23s and made a total of 28 appearances, scoring 5 and assisting 2. Those are pretty impressive numbers considering a 17-year-old is playing against players almost 5-6 years his senior.

Since the restart, Joelson Fernandes has made 4 appearances for the Sporting Lisbon first team and, while all of them were from the bench, he has done enough to convince Arsenal he is worth all the money. Joelson Fernandes fits the bill perfectly for Arsenal, and while investing so much money on a raw 17-year-old might be a bit of a risk, Arsenal needs to take such risks if they are to get back to the top.

In terms of his playing style, apart from being compared to Cristiano Ronaldo, Joelson Fernandes has also been compared to Luis Figo and Ricardo Quaresma. He is an amazing dribbler and is not afraid to take on defenders, has excellent technique and close control and can turn players inside out with the blink of an eye.

Despite being a wide player, Joelson Fernandes is not afraid to drop back and do his defensive duties and likes to fall back to pick the ball up from deep and use his vision to pick out a pass to on an onrushing teammate.

He stands at 172cm and while he is skinny at the moment that will change in the coming years and his physical side of the game will gradually improve as he learns the game. Joelson can develop into a perfect wide player with the only downside to his game being his lack of height meaning that he is not a threat in the air.

Given the horrible season Arsenal endured, spending so much money on just one player, and on such a young one raises a lot of questions. However, let us not forget anything can happen in football.

Maybe, just maybe, the Arsenal owners have seen just how good Mikel Arteta was with the limited resources he has at the moment and they have finally realized that they need to back him financially to get Arsenal back to where they belong.

Here is a look at some of Joelson Fernandes' skills, goals and assists: