Antonio Portales is a player with ambition – he wants top six football with Dundee and a place in the Mexico squad for this summer’s Copa America.
Though he is yet to turn out for his country, the central defender is determined to do everything he can in dark blue to earn a trip to the USA in June.
Do his performances so far, however, match his ambition?
Courier Sport takes a look.
Season so far
Portales has unfortunately missed more matches than he has played this season, with two significant injuries have derailing the summer signing’s debut campaign.
The first came on his Premiership bow.
Portales had made two League Cup appearances before lining up against Motherwell on the opening day of the league season.
But it lasted just six minutes before an ankle injury saw him side-lined for the next two months.
His return brought a hard-earned clean sheet at Hibs, followed by another four in the next five games.
But then injury struck once more; this time at the start of November as he gave chase to Rangers forward Abdallah Sima.
A hamstring pinged and that was the Mexican out again until February.
An unhappy return saw Celtic put seven past the Dee before a draw with Kilmarnock and then a shut-out against Aberdeen last time out.
So far he’s played 15 times with six wins, five draws and four defeats.
What the stats say
With Portales in the team, Dundee have picked up 17 Premiership points in 13 matches (1.3 per game).
Without him, their 16 games have yielded 19 (1.2 per game).
In terms of goals conceded, there is little difference with and without the Mexican.
However, take away two matches against Rangers and Celtic in which 12 goals were conceded and there is a notable improvement to the team’s defensive performance against the rest of the division.
Without Portales, Dundee conceded 1.5 goals per game (21 conceded in 14 matches).
With Portales in the backline, that number drops significantly to 0.8 goals per game (eight in 10 matches).
The big takeaway is that against the teams Dundee are expected to compete against, i.e. everyone but the Old Firm, Portales makes a BIG difference.
A simpler stat is to look at the clean sheets this season. Dundee have nine shut-outs in the Premiership this term – Portales was part of six of those.
The Mexican is a key man in Tony Docherty’s defence, no doubt.
Mexico squad?
Will he be able to force his way into the Mexico squad, though?
He says manager Jaime Lozano is aware of his talent but the Mexicans finished their Nations League campaign this week and there was no call for Portales.
Back in February, before Portales returned to the Dundee team, Lozano named a massive 60 players in a preliminary squad ahead of the two March games.
That was whittled down and only three recognised centre-backs were named in the final squad. Six Mexico-based central defenders were cut.
The most experienced centre-backs are Cesar Montes of struggling Spanish outfit Almeria and Genoa’s Johan Vasquez.
Twenty-two-year-old Jesus Orozco of Mexican league outfit Guadalajara is in the squad but has just two caps to his name.
The other five defenders named in the squad are predominantly full-backs.
It appears centre-back is not a position in which Mexico are blessed with talent.
So, if Portales can shine for Dundee between now and the end of the season he might actually have a chance of a surprise call-up.
Conversation