Born in Maputo in 2001, Geny Catamo split his formative years between CD Maxaquene and Associação Black Bulls while living in Mozambique. In 2018, Geny came to Europe through the doors of Amora FC, a club where he played for the Under-19s and the Senior Team, something that, given his performance, caught the eye of Sporting CP, a club he has represented since 2019. Before joining the “Lions”, he was loaned out to Vitória SC and CS Marítimo.
The young Mozambican arrived at Sporting as a winger and it was through this position that he grew, proving to be strong through progression from outside to inside – this is how he succeeded in the two loans he was subjected to. This season, however, Rúben Amorim has tried him out as a wing-back and his performance has grown from game to game. Geny is capable of playing both ways, but it’s on the right that his ability to get involved in the game increases.
From a physical point of view, Geny Catamo is a morphologically mesomorphic athlete. The Mozambican is of medium height, which gives him a low centre of gravity that favours him in individual offensive duels, especially in terms of agility and speed of execution. He also benefits from a high stride frequency, meaning that Catamo is a fast player not because his legs are long, but because the number of actions he takes to run is high.
In attacking moments, Geny has a knack for running diagonals from outside to inside – this benefits the team, as the winger playing on his side is usually better suited to playing close to the sideline. Strong in the offensive 1v1, he can pin down his opponent and quickly change direction, as he controls the ball constantly and has physical abilities that help him, as I mentioned earlier. When he gets past his opponent, he can define what he needs to do: normally if he has space in the second phase of the build-up, he attacks the opponent’s defensive line on the run and then releases to someone who can get clear; otherwise, he either looks for the “toco y me voy” and attacks the space at the back of the defensive line, or he immediately looks for the break pass to the striker and Sporting CP’s wingers – due to his ability to vary the game, he can look for the winger on the opposite side.
Still on the offensive end, but without the ball, the young Mozambican doesn’t hide from the game: He knows how to be an option through his passing; he manages to appear in the opponent’s area attacking the space at the far post – he appears aggressively, quickly and at the right time to attack the finish; he allows them to launch him down the side corridor and, this time, he looks for the cross – a highlight for his ambidexterity, something that allows him to place the ball in the area with either foot, and for his ability to exploit the far post – or he even manages to look for the finish by placing the ball at the disposal of his strongest foot, the left one, and thus shooting across.
Geny Catamo has grown from a defensive point of view. It was not only his willingness to take on defensive tasks that allowed Rúben Amorim, Sporting CP’s coach, to see in the Mozambican player an athlete capable of ensuring stability on the right wing of the “Lions'” 3x4x3. The right wing-back has a good competitive attitude, something which, added to the player’s intelligence and physicality, allows him to be a good guarantor of reaction to loss and high pressure – he masters the timing of containment, knows how to provide defensive cover, and respects pressure triggers. However, in the low block, there are still aspects to polish.
For the future, Geny Catamo needs a lot of playing time in the short term. If injuries don’t prevent him from doing so, establishing himself as a regular starter for Sporting CP would be ideal for the Mozambican player. I believe that staying in Portugal for the remainder of this season and next season will be the ideal way for him to solidify his position. His performance this season is already better than last season as a senior player – he has two goals and two assists. It will be good to see how he develops in this respect so that we can properly plan for the future. However, I believe that he will eventually be able to join teams fighting for titles in the main European leagues.
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