João Borne is a 17-year-old striker/attacking midfielder playing for Grêmio’s U-20 side. Last season, he racked up 15 goals and 6 assists in the U-17 Brasileiro. Most recently, he helped Grêmio U-20 reach the semifinals of the 2026 Copinha, scoring 5 goals and assisting 3.
Borne is listed at 1.76 m (5’9”) with an average build. He shows good speed to get away from opponents over short and longer distances. His strength might be his biggest weakness at the moment, as he struggles to shrug off opponents now that the majority are older and stronger than he is. Despite this, he still finds ways to escape pressure and protect the ball by positioning his body to shield off opponents and turn away from pressure. He can sometimes go down a bit easily, looking for a foul. Coming up from the U-17s, he still shows signs that he is adjusting to the physicality and speed of play. During the first few games of the Copinha, these struggles were noticeable, but he began to adapt as the tournament progressed.
Borne overall is a strong technical player. Since he is not the strongest, Borne relies on his technical ability to find solutions. His first touch is very good, rarely getting away from him. Throughout the Copinha, Borne would receive the ball inside the box and always knew where to take his first touch. Almost always, he would take his touch against the defender’s momentum and round him to create separation to get a shot off. Whenever Borne would pick up possession in the midfield, he was quick to turn and begin dribbling at the back line. He maintained the ball close to his feet, usually waiting for a gap to open up to play a teammate through or to get a shot off. What I noticed is that Borne tries to position himself between the ball and his opponent. This made it difficult for the opponent to tackle him without committing a foul. Either that or he would use the opponent’s contact as momentum and bounce off them to get away. He is occasionally sloppy, giving possession away cheaply. He fails to scan sometimes before receiving or tries to beat his opponents sometimes with a clever chop or sombrero flick, but they don’t always come off. He is very creative. One instance was his assist against Cruzeiro in the semifinal. A cross came in, forcing him away from goal, and he caught the defence off guard by chesting it down to his forward, Harlley, for a volley to make it 1-0. He looked comfortable in tight space situations. This was one of his biggest strengths. His link-up play was very good, helping Grêmio create attacking opportunities or escape pressure multiple times. His decision-making in the final third and final ball was good as well. The weight on his final passes was good, even if he wasn’t always able to connect.
Borne scored some impressive goals during the Copinha. Both his goals against Ceara were great examples. Both goals he struck first time without needing to readjust, showing his natural instinct. He has a strong ball-striking technique, generating good power on his shots. He tends to favor low-driven finishes into the bottom left corner. He primarily uses a laces/instep technique, although he showed he is comfortable using a variety of finishing techniques around the box.
Defensively, Borne has room for improvement. His main defensive task is closing passing lanes into the defensive midfielders. His positioning can be poor at times, leaving slight gaps for the opponent to progress. When pressing, he shows good understanding by curving his run to cut the outside passing lane to the fullback.
In possession, I was impressed with Borne’s movement off the ball. He likes to drift to find pockets of space. He is very good at receiving between the lines, turning, and playing the final ball, but he also has the ability to be a killer in the box. He is reminiscent of old school strikers, more of a second striker. He looks most comfortable playing off a taller, more physical striker. This gives him the freedom to drift around in the final third due to his ability to find and create space. In the penalty area, Borne is able to make runs or position himself in quality areas to get on the end of crosses or rebounds.
Overall, I was excited by what I saw of João Borne. He stood out to me for his finishing and intelligence off the ball. I do have concerns about his physicality, but he is still only 17, so he has room to develop. He will likely spend the majority of this season with the U-20s, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him begin to receive first team call-ups towards the second half of the season.
Target Scouting 