Gonçalo Ramos

The season in numbers

All competitions

46 games, 19 goals

Ligue 1

22 games, 10 goals, including first league hat-trick vs Montpellier (May 10, 4-1)

Champions League

12 games, 3 goals, including the 4-2 vs Manchester City

Coupe de France

Competition's top scorer with 5 goals, hat-trick vs Stade Briochin

Club record

18 bench goals since joining, passing Mbappé's previous PSG record of 11

The substitute for the No. 7 in Qatar

Born June 20, 2001, in Olhão, Algarve. Benfica pick him up in the academy, he signs pro in 2020. He is 21 in December 2022 when Fernando Santos decides to bench Cristiano Ronaldo from the Portugal starting XI for the World Cup round of 16 against Switzerland. The manager starts Ramos instead. Ramos scores a hat-trick, 17th, 51st, 67th minutes. First hat-trick on a first World Cup start since Miroslav Klose in 2002. He had never started a World Cup match before. He finishes it with three goals.

Summer 2023, Paris sign him. Paid loan (around 20 million euros) with a mandatory buy clause fixed at 65 million, add-ons up to 15 million. Possible total: 80 million. PSG activate the option on November 22, 2023. Contract to 2028. Number 9.

In Paris, the arc quietens down. His 2023-24 transition season had already thrown out the first signal: Ramos wins matches by coming on. In 2024-25, Luis Enrique formalises the role. When Paris are ahead and need a closing goal, Ramos comes on. When Paris are behind and need something in the box, Ramos comes on. 18 bench goals since joining, per the club figure shared in November 2025. More than Mbappé had scored from the bench in the same kind of situation at Paris.

Manchester City, 90+3

January 22, 2025. Paris host Manchester City in the UCL league phase. Paris are 0-2 down at the hour. Dembélé pulls one back at 56, Barcola equalises at 60, Neves heads home at 78 off a Vitinha free-kick. 3-2. Paris still shaky at the end, City pushing.

Ramos has come on in the second half. In added time at 90+3, he finds himself in the box on a fast break. Control, strike, goal. 4-2. The Parc des Princes erupts. That goal doesn't only change the result of the match. It saves PSG's whole European campaign. Without the win, they could have missed the league-phase top 8 and drawn a harder knockout bracket. What comes after plays out the way it does because Ramos scored.

Two months later, Anfield. Round of 16 second leg against Liverpool. Paris have won 1-0 after extra time, penalty shootout looming. At 120 minutes, Luis Enrique sends him on for the first and only time of the night. Strictly to take a penalty. Ramos buries it. Donnarumma will then see off Núñez and Jones. Paris go through. A player deployed as a precision tool on a specific moment. Rare.

Key moments

Five moments from a season where Gonçalo Ramos, more often on the bench at kick-off than in the starting eleven, scored nineteen goals in all competitions, the most important: the 4-2 at 90+3 against Manchester City.

1. 2024-12-10

   Salzburg, first UCL goal in a Paris shirt

   League phase at Salzburg, 3-0 away. Ramos scores his first Champions League goal in a Paris shirt. A season starting quietly.

2. 2025-01-22

   Manchester City, 4-2 at 90+3

   PSG down 0-2 claw back to 3-2, then Ramos, on as a second-half sub, seals the 4-2 in added time. The goal saves the Champions League campaign.

3. 2025-03-11

   Anfield, 120th-minute entry for a spot-kick

   Round of 16 second leg vs Liverpool. Luis Enrique sends Ramos on in the final seconds exclusively to take one of the spot-kicks. He scores. Paris go through.

4. 2025-05-10

   Montpellier, first Ligue 1 hat-trick

   PSG win 4-1 at Montpellier. Ramos's first Ligue 1 hat-trick. The title is already sealed, the match has an end-of-season feel, and the Portuguese scores three anyway.

5. 2025-05-24

   Coupe de France top scorer

   PSG win the Coupe de France final 3-0 over Reims. Ramos ends as top scorer of the competition with five goals, including a hat-trick on February 26 against Stade Briochin.

Coupe top scorer, first Ligue 1 hat-trick

The Paris season plays out across three fronts where Ramos often starts: Coupe de France, Ligue 1 when Dembélé is rested, UCL league phase. On February 26, Coupe round of 16 against Stade Briochin, Ramos scores a hat-trick. Later in the run, he piles on again. Final tally: top scorer of the 2024-25 Coupe de France with five goals. The competition PSG will win 3-0 against Reims in the Stade de France final.

May 10, 2025. Paris win 4-1 at Montpellier in Ligue 1. Ramos starts. First Ligue 1 hat-trick of his career. The title has been sealed for a month, the match is almost protocol, and yet Ramos treats it as if his personal numbers depended on it.

December 10, 2024, Salzburg. His first Champions League goal in a Paris shirt, in the 3-0 away win. February 19, 2025, PSG 7-0 Brest, he adds the sixth. Against Aston Villa, Arsenal and Inter in the knockouts, he will come on but not score. Munich plays out without his name on the scoresheet. The trophy still gets lifted.

The role, and the patience

A super-sub role at this level, in a project that wins everything, is not an attractive career role for a 23-year-old. Ramos accepted it. The squad shape, with Dembélé starting as a false nine, left no other route. His contribution, quantifiable and visible, never translated into a locked-in starting spot.

The table The Athletic will publish in early October 2025 lays out what the role actually produces. Across the full Luis Enrique stretch, Ramos logs 43 starts for 3,170 minutes, 127 shots, 25.9 xG, 19 goals, one goal every 167 minutes, 15% conversion. Off the bench: 52 appearances, 972 minutes, 50 shots, 14.6 xG, 17 goals, one goal every 57 minutes, 34% conversion. Almost the same goal total in roughly a third of the time. The same piece flags a European record: four Champions League goals off the bench since the start of 2023-24. Only Ángel Correa of Atlético matches it.

Luis Enrique, asked about him in May 2025: 'He is a wonderful player, capable of very high performances. If he plays a minute, he plays it very well. I would call him a guarantee.' Thierry Henry on CBS after the 90+3 strike against Manchester City: 'That's the type of goal you score in training. That's what a team is about. Throughout a season, you need a bench to bail you out - that's why he signed for PSG, to come on and change the game.'

One year later, in April 2026, Luis Enrique returns to the subject in a press conference. 'I've been unfair to Gonçalo Ramos, despite his impact.' A rare admission from him. For now, in May 2025, Ramos lifts the trophy in Munich with his teammates and walks into the dressing room carrying a trophy list that didn't exist against his name twelve months earlier. Sextuple. Top scorer of a domestic cup. A Ligue 1 hat-trick. The goal that saved the European campaign. Not bad for a substitute.