Reading's Porto loanee Tomas Esteves has spoken about his future to Portuguese sports publication Ojogo, with the full back admitting that his dream is to play regularly for his parent club in the years to come.
Esteves has been impressive in spells for the Royals since arriving on a season long loan from Portugal and has played a total of 27 games across all competitions under the guidance of Veljko Paunović at the Madejski Stadium.
Unsurprisingly his strong showings for the Championship play-off chasers has led to many calling for the club to explore the possibility of making the move permanent this summer.
However it now appears that the youngster has ruled out a prolonged stay in Berkshire, with the defender stating the following about his future:
“What I do know is that my connection with Reading ends at the end of this season and that, afterwards, I return to Portugal, but I don’t know what will happen.
"It’s not for me to decide whether or not to stay in the squad. It’s up to me to give my best at Reading, make as many games as possible and have good performances.
“Yes, sure. My dream is to play at FC Porto. Of course I already played, but I want to play more regularly and I have more dreams to fulfil at FC Porto. It’s my heart club and that’s where I want to play.”
A youth international for his country, Esteves has three years remaining on his current contract with Porto and looks set to stay put with the Portuguese first division outfit.
The Verdict
Unfortunately for Reading and their supporters, it appears that this will be the player's final few matches with the club before he returns to his parent side.
However many will have been left impressed by the way in which Esteves has acquitted himself to English football since making the move over from Europe.
The attacking side of his game is a major strength of his whilst the defensive one has also showed good signs of improvement under Paunović so far.
He's fallen out of the starting eleven of late so therefore his objective now will be to break back in to the team before the play-offs come about, with it still being touch and go as to whether the Royals will qualify or not.