Gelson Martins

Gelson Dany Batalha Martins is a Portuguese professional football player who was born on 11 May 1995 in Praia, Cape Verde.

He mainly plays the role of a Right Winger, right midfielder and secondary striker in the game but sometimes also handles the role of a right back. He has been part of the national side since 2012.

Background

From his teens he was interested in football and joined youth football club C.F. Benfica in 2008 as an 13 year old and later joined Sporting Clube de Portugal, the club for which he plays presently.

Debut

Martins started as part of the national side in the U-18 level with the UEFA European Under-19 Championship which started on 31st Oct, 2012 in Estonia. Spain was declared the ultimate winner of the championship and Portugal managed to make it to the group stage only.

He played 9 more matches for the U-18 team but went scoreless in all of them. for the 2014 UEFA European Under-19 Championship held in Hungary, Martins was in the Portugal squad and played all the matches which culminated in a runner-up position for Portugal.

Rise to glory

He was at the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup scoring in the group stage against Senegal for Portugal and again in the round-of-16 against hosts New Zealand but the team couldn’t move beyond quarter-finals.

In the late September of 2016, Martins got his first call up to the senior team for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Aveiro for qualifiers against Andorra and Faroe Islands. He won his first cap in the match against the Andorra in their 6−0 win.

Club Career

From 2008 to 2010 he played for Futebol Benfica.

Then from 2010 to 2014 he was in the Sporting Clube de Portugal club.

He was promoted to the B-team of the Sporting Clube de Portugal in March 2014 and a contract extension till 2019 was agreed upon. During this time of his youth his goal against C.F. União de Coimbra earned him limelight.

On 24 August 2014, Gelson made his debut as a professional in the Segunda Liga championship as a late substitute for Lewis Enoh that ended as a 1−0 away win against S.C. Olhanense. His first goal in the competition came on 21 December where he scored one of the 3 goals.

In 2015 Martins was promoted to Sporting CP's and on 9 August he made his professional debut in a 1−0 win over S.L. Benfica.

On 14 August 2015 Martins appeared in the Primeira Liga for the first time and On 15th January 2016 against the same C.D. Tondela team he scored Sporting's 5000th goal.