Roberto Martinez stresses that his Portugal side “is about the collective” despite the worldwide focus on Cristiano Ronaldo‘s achievement of reaching 900 career goals with Thursday’s winner against Croatia.
And the former Motherwell midfielder points out that Scotland, who are their next visitors in Nations League Group A1 on Sunday, also have players who are developing on the world stage.
“What an incredible opportunity we have with players like Ronaldo, with players like Pepe, to develop the young players in the dressing room in the best possible way,” Portugal’s head coach said.
“We’ve got 10 million population and the amount of players that we have in the highest levels, it speaks volumes of the development that we have in this country and the talent and the mentality and everything comes from examples like Cristiano and Pepe.”
Martinez, who spent much of his playing and management careers in the UK, thinks two of Scotland’s key midfielders joining Napoli last month from Manchester United and Brighton & Hove Albion, respectively, can only help their national cause.
“It changes a lot of mentality when you go abroad and you have to find a way to be important in a dressing room,” the Spaniard suggested.
“I think the experience of Italian football for Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour is going to take Scottish football into the next level.
“Obviously Andrew Robertson, for me, is still one of the best full-backs in European football and you’ve got a lot of players now in the Premier League, like John McGinn, Ryan Christie.
“The amount of players that you have playing week in, week out in the Premier League speaks volumes for the quality of these players.”