Weslley Patati: The Next Brazilian Wonder Kid?

By: Jack Cole - YouthScout1ng

Scouting Report:

• Player Profile

  • Name: Weslley Patati

  • Country: Brazil

  • Market Value: €1.5 Million

  • Club: Maccabi Tel Aviv

  • Position: Right Winger (can play on the left wing as well but prefers the right)

  • Foot: Left

  • Birthday: October 1, 2003 (Age: 21)

  • Height/Weight: 167 cm, 59kg (5-6, 132lb)

  • First Team Experience: 64 Appearances (Santos and Maccabi Tel Aviv)

  • Heat Map (Domestic League - SofaScore):

• Player Comparisons from DataMB Pro Tool (based off statistics from strictly Domestic Leagues)

Early Life/Career: “Rags to Riches”

As a neutral football fan, it is almost impossible for anyone to cheer against the story and development of footballer Weslley Patati. Weslley was born in the city of Presidente Dutra, Brazil, to a poverty stricken family. Growing up in Brazil, Weslley couldn’t afford his own football boots and had to borrow pairs from other players while playing for various local and amateur teams. Despite these hard times, Weslley he did not stop working and improving, which eventually earned him a trial for Santos in 2019 (Yes, the club that Neymar currently plays for and spent his academy days at). This trial eventually earned him a place in the Santos U17 squad, where he signed his first professional contract, a 3 year deal, when he was just 16. Patati was able to develop and work his way through the ranks at Santos, until he made an appearance for Santos B team in 2021, and finally got his breakthrough and debuted for Santos first team in the Brasileiro in 2022. (pictured here>)

Where he, fun fact, replaced ex Atletico Madrid, Real Betis, and Villareal attacker Leo Baptistao. In 2023, he saw an increase from 1 appearance in the Brasileiro in 2022, to 9 total appearances in 2023. It was not till 2023, when Brazilian giants Santos were relegated down to Serie B for the first time in their entire clubs history, when Weslley started to make an impact on the first time squad. In the second tier of Brazilian football in 2023, Weslley made 13 league appearances, 6 of which he started, playing a total of 491 minutes. In this small opportunity he was given, he was able to record some pretty impressive advanced statistics: (Graphs shown below next - these graphs were created through coding in python and data extraction from fotmob)

As these stats show, Santos winger Weslley was not only scoring at an incredible frequency from the wing, but he was also playing with fantastic creativity, showing an amazing balance of playmaking and scoring from the wing that any Scout would find fascinating. However, what stood out to me just as much as Weslley’s impressive playmaking and scoring numbers, was his work ethic and defensive rate off the ball. As the defensive graph shows, Weslley was a defensive workhorse from the wing for Santos during his time on the field, ranking greater than the 90th percentile (compared to other attacking midfielders in the Brazilian Serie B) in tackles won, duels won, interceptions, and blocks. These numbers are quite impressive for a winger playing for not only the best team in the league, but a team also playing with an average of the 5th highest possession in the league throughout the 2023 season.

With all that being said, what can right wing Weslley Patati not do, dribble or play well on the ball? Well he can do that also. During this season, Weslley was in the 95th percentile for successful dribbles and the 98th percentile for touches, showing how heavily involved Weslley is in build-up play, making him a crucial attacking outlet (compared to other attacking midfielders and wingers in the Brazilian Serie B). Weslleu Patati gives all a scout can ask for on the pitch when he plays. This incredible all around performance in the second tier of Brazilian football which helped Santos become champions of the Serie B and an immediate promotion back to the top flight, earned him a €1.45 move to Israeli Giants, Maccabi Tel Aviv, in 2024. This move has already proved to be a great one, as Weslley is currently having his breakout season.

Breakout Season: The Next Neymar?

It took a few match weeks in the Ligat Ha'Al for the Santos’ Academy graduate to establish himself as a regular starter, but he quickly broke through the ranks and not looked back since. This season in the Israeli top flight, Weslley has already made 22 appearances, 16 of which he has started, bagging 7 goals and 3 assists. With these numbers being impressive, there may be critics out there doubting the competition in the Israel league, with it being ranked as the 18th best league in Europe according to UEFA. While this is a somewhat fair argument, Weslley has not only been performing well in Israel, he has also performed incredibly well in Europe throughout his Europa League campaign. Unfortunately, his run in the Europa league has ended due to Maccabi’s overall poor performance in the group stage. In Tel Aviv’s short campaign, Weslley was able to make 7 appearances, 4 of which he started in, and played a total of 395 minutes. In this short period, the winger was able to achieve 1 goal and 3 assists. To help show what this talented winger really has been doing to Europe in his Europa league campaign this season, I web scraped 7 types of advanced statistics (from fbref) from his Europa campaign, and converted them into polar graphs that compare Weslley’s percentile rank to other attacking midfielders/wingers throughout the Europa League campaign so far:

At first glance, these graphs may seem overwhelming. However, a closer look reveals just how well-rounded and complete Weslley Patati is as a winger. As you can see from the standard graph above, Weslley ranks in the 57th percentile for non-penalty goals and in the 99th percentile for assists, both very impressive numbers. As mentioned early, Weslley does not forget about his defensive duties despite being a winger. He ranks in the 94th percentile for tackles and the 91st percentile for interceptions, cleaning up quite well on defense. If you continue to look at the graphs, you can see how direct of a winger Patati is with his dribbling. He is not afraid to take his opponent on, as he ranks in the 63rd percentile for attempted take ons and 67th percentile for successful take ons, being very efficient with his take ons. He carries the ball insanely well while ranking in the 91st percentile and ball carrying distance, 82nd percentile for carries into the final third, and the 55th percentile for carries into the box. With all of these stats coming from the Europa League against very strong opponents like Porto, Besiktas, Ajax, Real Sociedad, Midtjylland, and Braga (pretty awful group stage draw for the Israeli club). With all of this being said, what is Patati’s weakness? As he is a very complete winger, one aspect that he needs to improve on is his live-ball passing, and most of his playmaking and chance creation comes from set pieces. For example, Weslley ranked in the 89th percentile for dead-ball passes and the 9th percentile for shot creating actions through dead-ball passes; however he ranked 23rd percentile for live-ball passes and the 12th percentile for shot creating actions through live-ball passes. He also ranked in the 34th percentile for passes completed. The live-ball creation statistics could raise concern for clubs when scouting him; however, with his insanely overachieving dead-ball passing numbers, I expect for his live-ball passing numbers to increase significantly with more development and experience. Remember this player is only 21, he can’t do everything perfectly yet… There is one more graphic I would like to show you that shows how impressive this player’s season has been so far. This data comes from DataMB’s pro tool and is based off strictly Patati’s domestic campaign in Israel: (this graphic compares Weslley to every attacking midfielder or winger on DataMB database, this includes over 40 leagues and thousands of attackers)

In these 12 different advanced statistics, Weslley ranks above the 70th percentile in 10 of the 12. Do you know how ridiculous that is for a 21 year old winger with as little experience as him? Weslley Patati ranks among the top wingers in nearly every key attacking metric, with exceptional output in dribbles attempted, progressive carries, and expected assists. His ability to consistently beat defenders and advance the ball into dangerous areas helps stretch opposing backlines and create space for teammates. Combined with his high expected goals and crossing numbers, Patati plays a crucial role in driving Maccabi Tel Aviv’s attacking transitions and creating high-quality chances in the final third. With numbers like these, it’s easy to see why some might draw early comparisons to other elite Brazilian attackers. While it could be early to make strong projections, Weslley Patati’s development so far suggests he has the potential to reach a very high level.

Whats Next?

Now that you know a little bit more about Weslley Patati, it may have you asking, what is next for this player? When looking at Maccabi Tel Aviv’s previous departure history, this past Summer transfer window, they sold one of their Left Wingers who had been playing around the same level (not quite as good as Weslley), who was four years older than Weslley, for €5 Million to Red Star Belgrade. With that being said, I would expect Tel Aviv to want a decent bit more than this for Weslley (potentially more than double). Where would I personally like Weslley to go? In my eyes, as long as Weslley goes to a club that can develop him well, it would be a fantastic move for him. With my guess being for around €10 Million (which could vary a lot based off his contract that expires in 2027) for an asking price for Weslley, I could see him falling in the hands of either Brazilian giants Flamengo or Botafogo, who both tend to play a 4-2-3-1 similar to Tel Aviv, and who have both been very active in the transfer market recently. As an American, I would dream of a player of this caliber and potential for being only 21 to come to the MLS. With that being said, now that Weslley has experienced European Football in the Europa league, I could see this deal being pretty difficult for him to agree on. Especially when he would most likely rather play in his home country Brazil. If this player wants to stay in Europe for his next move, I would love to see him play at a club great for development like FC Porto or Brighton Hove and Albion, who both are fantastic at developing talents through utilizing loans and trusting youth talents in their first team, not to mention both teams enjoy playing in a similar formation as Tel Aviv, where Weslley could thrive. With all this being said, Weslley Patati is for sure one to look out for in the up and coming transfer windows and could be a great pick-up for many clubs looking for a high potential winger.

*All statistics and information in this scouting report are current as of March 31 and do not include data recorded after that date*

Works Cited

“Datamb Pro.” DataMB Pro, datamb.football/pro/. Accessed 25 Mar. 2025.

“Football Transfers, Rumours, Market Values and News.” Transfermarkt, www.transfermarkt.us/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2025.

UEFA.com. “Country Coefficients: UEFA Rankings.” UEFA.Com, 19 July 2018, www.uefa.com/nationalassociations/uefarankings/country/?year=2025.

“Weslley Patati Scouting Report for 2024-2025 Europa League.” FBref.Com, fbref.com/en/players/0df16cd7/scout/12624/Weslley-Patati-Scouting-Report. Accessed 25 Mar. 2025.

“Weslley Patati Stats and Ratings” | Sofascore, www.sofascore.com/player/weslley-patati/1148468. Accessed 25 Mar. 2025.

“Weslley Patati - Stats, Career and Market Value.” FotMob, www.fotmob.com/players/1383534/weslley-pinto. Accessed 28 Mar. 2025.