Brazilian who did not make his country’s World Cup squad must realise time is running out if he is to make his mark in Europe

When Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the top goalscorer and assist provider in Ligue 1, was substituted in the last game of last season, he walked off the Parc des Princes to a standing ovation as Paris Saint-Germain were thrashing Montpellier 4-0. His last move on the pitch was as unexpected and spontaneous as some of those goals and assists. He walked straight to his team-mate Lucas Moura and strapped his captain’s armband around the winger’s shoulder.

Just 18 minutes into the opening game of this season, the Brazil international capitalised on a poor pass from the opposition to burst into the penalty area but overlooked the Swede, unmarked in the goal area. An unsuccessful stepover led him to lose the ball and earn an earful from his captain, who barked obscenities at him as Reims levelled the match four minutes later.

The turnaround from Zlatan was a symbol of Moura’s career. A player everyone would like to see fulfil his potential keeps frustrating even his most ardent supporters.

Transferred from São Paulo to Paris Saint-Germain in January 2013 for £44.3m, picking the French side in preference to Manchester United, Moura has not made the impact expected for club and country.

Once a hugely popular figure in Brazil, running rings around Brazilian league full-backs since 2010, Moura quickly featured in the national team, making his debut aged 19. He now has 31 caps for Brazil.

When he joined the São Paulo academy in 2005 he endured a rigorous schedule, attending school in the morning before taking two buses across the sprawling city to reach the Barra Funda training grounds in the afternoon, returning home way past midnight.

His parents Jorge and Fatima were worried by their son’s exhausting lifestyle but they knew it was the path he had chosen and offered their full support. “Were it not for my parents and brother Thiago I would not be where I am today,” concedes the young man who excelled as a student but also showed signs of unruliness, staunchly refusing to eat beans – staple diet for many Brazilians – and once coming home with dozens of stings after kicking a beehive.

Misdeeds would lead to the harshest punishment. “The cruellest way in which you could punish him would be to take away his football. He would cry on and on,” his brother recalls.

This happened when he persuaded a young boy from his neighbourhood to pay 10 Brazilian reals for a self-made kite whose fabrication had cost 30 times less. Told off by his father after using the money to construct 30 new kites, he apologised and would give a special autograph to the boy’s brother, an ardent São Paulo fan, many years later.

Just as he did not always toe the line as a youth, Moura finds it difficult to measure up on football pitches today.

The Brazilian’s failure to integrate a tactical dimension to his game makes him lack the awareness required to break up narrow defences on European pitches.

A propensity to cut inside and over-enthusiastic dribbling (5.4 dribbles per game in the Champions League last season, nearly a quarter of his total attempted passes) have earned him a reputation for playing it solo, despite boasting the third highest number of assists in Ligue 1 behind Ibrahimovic and James Rodríguez last season.

While it is a stretch to say Manchester United dodged a bullet not signing the winger, it is difficult to picture Moura conforming to Louis van Gaal’s tactics.

His trademark acceleration and explosiveness, however, remain untarnished which he showed against Marseille at the Parc des Princes last season.

The solo effort did not lead to a goal but hinted at the winger’s ability to raise his game on big occasions. It was reminiscent of the run his illustrious compatriot Ronaldinho made for PSG, also against Marseille, 10 years earlier. However, comparisons between the two Brazilians stop here.

Moura’s positioning off the ball is often careless and hinders his progress, leading to only 18 league starts last season. Laurent Blanc, PSG’s manager, decided on rotation with Edinson Cavani even though Moura’s transfer fee was the Brazilian league record until Neymar moved to Barcelona.

Rotation was an alien term to the São Paulo star who would lead every attack in Brazil. Reduced game time took a toll on his confidence and played a part in the biggest disappointment of his career, on the day his side celebrated a second consecutive league title.

A full Brazil international since the age of 19, brought up alongside Oscar at São Paulo and named best player of the 2011 South American Youth Championship ahead of Neymar, he was left out of Luiz Felipe Scolari’s World Cup squad on May 7, the day PSG won the French league.

He had led title celebrations the year before but was unable to take part this time, tearfully sitting away from his team-mates after the final whistle, staring into the distance at his childhood dream fading away.

Although few of Scolari’s decisions can be vindicated with the benefit of hindsight, no eyebrows were raised in Brazil at Moura’s absence from his squad. The consensus was the winger had not progressed in an area of the pitch already plugged with talent.

He reacted by scoring his fourth and fifth goals of the season and producing arguably two of his finest performances, leading Ibrahimovic to reward him with the captain’s armband on final matchday.

Now summer has come and gone, and his sadness is shared by 200 million Brazilians, Moura has a point to prove. Ibrahimovic’s earful underlines how difficult it is for him to shake off old habits.

Although it took a year for his compatriot Raí to get used to the PSG environment, before establishing himself as one of the club’s greatest ever players in the mid-1990s, time is running out for Moura to live up to his fantastic potential.