Football Player Profile: Luis Fabiano
Manchester City with their newly found riches in Sheikh Mansour, are looking very busy in the transfer market having already secured the services of David Silva of Valencia and Yaya Toure of Barcelona, they are now in search of a striker.
City have an embarrassment of attacking riches in their squad but when money speaks, the world listens. First they were linked with a move for Fernando Torres and then there were reports in the media of them chasing after Chelsea’s Didier Drogba and now most recently after an impressive world cup by the player they are trying to lure Brazilian Luis Fabiano of Sevilla to the blue half of Manchester.
What is City’s greed is United’s need, Manchester United are trying to secure the services of a proven goal scorer that can guarantee them goals in double figures in the next season. United’s failure to win the Premier league was blamed on Dimitar Berbatov’s profligacy in front of goal and while the Bulgarian has fallen out of favour at Old Trafford, he is expected to be offloaded in the summer and United are in search of a striker partner of Wayne Rooney.
United have been long admirers of Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema and there are now reports in the media that Luis Fabiano has been linked with a move to Old Trafford but the Reds face stiff competition from the blue side of Manchester.
So what do we know about the Brazilian hotshot who is in such high demand?
Luis Fabiano Clemente was born on the 8th of November 8, 1980 in Campinas, Sao Paulo. He first started playing football at his local Campina club Ponte Preta but was virtually unknown until 2001 when his signed for the Serie A Club Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Fabiano has the reputation of a hot head so much, so that he puts likes of Ronney, Robinho, Balotelli or even the great Roy Keane to shame. On more than one occasions in his life he has been embroiled in an on-pitch fight with either a team mate or an opponent.
It was while at Sao Paulo that Fabiano claimed international fame for fighting on the pitch. His most notorious bust up coming against River Plate of Argentina in 2003 in Copa Sudaamericana. The short tempered striker, karate kicked an opponent just below the neck and the extent of injury was such that the player played no further part in the game and had to be rushed to the hospital immediately. To this day his temper has not mellowed down and one can just imagine the fun the world audiences would be in for, if he is to be entangled in midfield battle with Manchester City’s Nigel De Jong in a Manchester Derby.
Fabiano moved to the European continent at the start of 04-05 seasons, when he signed for FC Porto of Portugal for a fee believed to be in the region of 10 million Euros. The striker had a troubled first season both off and on the pitch and just scored thrice the whole season. His mother was kidnapped by gunmen in his native Campinas but Police however rescued her 2 months later.
Fabiano moved to Spain to sign for Sevilla in 2005 and the move proved to be the best in his career, with the striker almost averaging a goal every other game for the Los Palanganas. He scored a staggering 24 times in 30 appearances in the 07-08 season with another 8 coming in 10 champions league games.
So far, in his career Fabiano has won 2 Copa del Reys and 2 back to back UEFA Cups with Sevilla.
Fabiano made his international debut for Brazil in 2003 and was also part of the 2004 Copa America winning side. He has so far been capped a total of 43 times for his country and scored 28 goals.
In the 2009, Confederations Cup Fabiano scored 5 times in 5 games and it was his brace in the game against USA that launched a stunning comeback. The striker also picked up the Golden Boot award in the tournament.
Fabiano has also been the Brazil’s first choice striker for the Brazilian national side in the World Cup 2010 and also scored three goals, one of which against the Ivory Coast came after not one but two hand balls – as the striker has himself admitted.
Fabiano is a sublime talent and his arrival in the Premier League would no doubt be a great addition to the League, as there's no denying the fact that he knows where the goal is.
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