Rodrigo Mora turned 18 at the start of May. Though he is now legally able to drive, he has not yet found the time to learn.
And it is through no fault of his own, as the exciting FC Porto talent has been constantly on the go over the past few weeks.
Porto got their FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ campaign underway on Sunday, drawing 0-0 with Brazil’s SE Palmeiras in New York-New Jersey, and Mora was a constant threat in attack for the Dragões. It was even more impressive when you consider that he is currently the youngest player to have featured at the tournament, at the age of 18 years and 40 days.
Mora’s form throughout the season also earned him a first call-up to the Portugal senior national team in May, when they travelled to Germany for the UEFA Nations League Final Four.
The Porto playmaker finished the season in scintillating form. Scoring in seven of their final ten Liga Portugal matches, he ended the campaign with ten goals to his name, more than any other U-20 player across Europe’s top seven domestic leagues, ahead of the likes of Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal and Paris Saint-Germain’s Desire Doue.
In his first season as a regular starter for Porto, he became the third-youngest player in the league’s history to score twice in the same game, behind only Braga’s Roger Fernandes, who achieved the feat in 2021, and a certain Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored a brace for Sporting CP back in 2002.
It’s certainly been a busy few weeks for Mora since turning 18, but he will be hoping to keep that momentum going with Porto back in action this Thursday (19 June). There they face Inter Miami at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, in search of their first win of the tournament.
His mother’s lifts to training could continue for a little while when he returns home to Matosinhos, on the outskirts of Porto, where he lives with his family.
“He got the call-up for the national team not long after his birthday, so he doesn’t have a [driver’s] licence yet. My wife [Vania Mora] takes him to training every day then goes and picks him up after. He still relies on his family to get around”, explains his father, Jose Manuel, himself a former player at Braga and Leixoes, speaking to FIFA.
Mora has had to face the challenge of juggling his blossoming football career with his school studies, which he is due to complete this year.
For now, though, he is completely focused on the Club World Cup.
“As his parents, we always hoped for the best for him, but even we’ve been surprised how quickly things have taken off for him. I mean, we’re talking about a kid who has only just turned 18 and he’s already scored some incredible goals”, says Manuel.
“The Club World Cup is a dream. Not every player will get to experience that. Rodrigo is getting to play with and against some of the players he admires and watches on TV. That’s down to his dedication, but also the Porto team and staff around him”, he adds.
Anyone who has watched Rodrigo Mora play in Portugal this season will know that his resourcefulness with the ball at his feet is no secret.
Portugal head coach Roberto Martínez summed it up nicely in a recent press conference, describing how it feels to watch Mora play football.
“I have a big smile on my face when I talk about Mora. He’s special and he’s going to define an entire era of Portuguese football”, he said.
The attacking midfielder joined Porto’s youth system in 2016 and has been making great strides ever since. He gave Portuguese football a taste of what was to come in January 2023, making his debut for Porto’s B team at the age of 15 years, eight months and ten days, to become the youngest professional player in Portuguese football history.
“I used to play myself, but I never pushed Rodrigo into football”, added Manuel. That all came from him. When he was young, he wasn’t interested in cartoons, he would only watch football on TV. It was all about football. There were balls everywhere – in the living room, in the bedroom and in the garden. At some point, he said he wanted to be a player.
“He was recently away with the national team and he came home so happy. They all made him feel very welcome. It was a dream come true for him to be there alongside [Cristiano] Ronaldo”, he added.
Mora will come face to face with another legend of the game when Porto play Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami, but the only thing that will matter to the Dragões at the full-time whistle will be the three points. Maybe when he gets back to Portugal, he can start to think about those driving lessons.
