New lease of life for the unlucky Eduardo

I really hope that former Arsenal striker Eduardo can resurrect his career in Ukraine with Shakhtar Donetsk. The twenty-seven year old striker signed a four year deal with the club last week for a reported £6 million.

Horrendous

Eduardo was looking the part at Arsenal until he suffered an horrendous injury by breaking his leg and dislocating his ankle in a challenge with Martin Taylor of Birmingham in February 2008. He missed a whole year from the game and since his return he just hasn’t quite looked to be the same player.

The Arsenal website paid the following tribute to the Croatian striker,

“Eduardo’s recovery from his injury sustained at Birmingham City in February 2008 is a testament to his strength as a human being, and this character and determination will be missed by everyone at Arsenal. Everyone at Arsenal would like to thank Eduardo for his contribution towards the club and wish him the best of luck for the future.”

Quality

Shakhtar Donetsk coach Mircea Lucescu is aware that Eduardo hasn’t performed his best of late but knows how much quality the striker possesses,

“We wanted to buy Eduardo before he moved to Arsenal. Not everything went his way last season, but he is still a player of very high quality, a real marksman. Yes, he had a serious injury, we are aware of the risk, but at the same time we realise he can give a lot to Shakhtar. We expect a lot from Eduardo.”

There is no doubt that Donetsk are getting a lot for the money and if they can get him back to his best he will turn out to be the best bargain buy of the season. His international record for Croatia of scoring nineteen goals in twenty-eight games shows that he knows exactly where the goal is.

Headlines

Starting his career at Dinamo Zagreb the Brazilian born player hit the headlines with a phenomenal scoring record. In all, he scored eighty-three goals in one hundred and twenty-three games for the club. It was his final season, 2006-07, when he caught then eye of Arsene Wenger. Forty-five goals and twenty-eight assists in forty-four games, made him just about the hottest striking property in the world.

Although the fee paid by Arsenal for his services was undisclosed it was believed to be around £7.5 million.

Injury

He started well at Arsenal and had established himself in the team prior to his injury. In all competitions in his first season at the Emirates he had played thirty-one games and scored twelve goals and had eight assists. It was looking very good until that Taylor tackle in the February.

Apart from a couple of cup appearances Eduardo played no part in the 2008-09 season and although he returned for last season he was in and out of the side, making a total of thirty-two appearances and finding the net just seven times.

Dinamo Zagreb have won the Croatian league five times in a row and assuming they can create plenty of chances, it might not be too long before Eduardo is finding the net regularly again. I hope he is.