Wolves youngster Christian Marques keen for another temporary move after tough loan spell
Wolves academy star Christian Marques has opened up on his ‘difficult’ loan spell in Portugal last season.
The 19-year-old arrived at Molineux in January 2019 and swiftly moved up to the under-23s, where he became the youngster player to captain the development side.
He has been on the periphery of the first team and his season-long loan at Portuguese top flight side Belenenses SAD last year was meant to be his shining moment.
However, the teenager returned to Wolves in January having made no senior appearances for Belenenses, and he spent the rest of the season playing for Wolves’ under-23s.
“It’s not been an easy season for me,” he told the Express & Star.
“I was on loan and didn’t play as I was expected to.
“I made the decision to come back and try to get back to where I was before and get some game time again. Since then I think I’ve really pushed on again.
“I knew I had made a big step going out on loan straight away to the first division in Portugal, I knew it would be difficult.
“But I just believed in myself. Last season when I came back from injury I felt like I was the best version of myself with my fitness, shape and physicality.
“I thought it would be good to go on loan to the first division and I didn’t expect to play 30 games straight away, I knew I had to go slow and step by step. Maybe by Christmas have three or four games and if I had that, that would have been alright, because I know it’s not easy to play in the first division.
“But in the end it didn’t work out at all. We had a few different managers, I never got picked and then had to play for the under-23s.
“I decided with the club that it would be better for me to come back and get going again here in the under-23s, play as much as I can and then see in the summer again if I can have a good loan again.”
The centre-back has just one year left on his Wolves deal – having signed a new contract when he left on loan in September – however, the club does have the option of a further year.
He was left out of the squad travelling to Spain for pre-season this week and is likely to get a move elsewhere – with a loan more likely.
When asked if he hopes for another loan opportunity, Marques said: “Yes, of course.
“Maybe straight away it won’t be as high as when I went to Portugal, because that is a hard league.
“Maybe I need a step backwards first and then in two seasons we’ll have a step forwards again. We need to discuss it.
“Hopefully this time it will be a better loan than last time.”
When asked about his long-term future, he added: “I haven’t spoken to the club yet so I don’t know exactly what they are thinking to do with me.
“When everything is done, we will sit down and see what the plan is, whether there’s a another deal in there for me – I just don’t know yet.”
