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01 August 2007, 3:46 AM
The Ongoing Deco Debate FC Barcelona are experiencing little turbulence in their pre-season as the Blaugranas prepare for a money-spinning mini-tour of Asia. The main bugbears so far are how to carefully prune the current squad, shaving off the dead wood to allow the team to grow further and really bloom this coming season. Without resorting to naming names, most pundits and fans know who they’d like to see wave goodbye, but there is one name who does divide the Barça faithful: Deco…
Anderson Luis de Souza – better known as Deco (a common nickname in Brazil for those called André or Anderson) – has been a player who has split opinions a few times before and now it appears that his continuance – or not – in Catalunya is causing doubts. It’s hardly a new obstacle in the career of the Luso-Brazilian midfielder, having faced this in both Brazil and Portugal, but it does come as the player reaches that classic milestone: his thirtieth birthday.
Deco will turn thirty on August 27th, some saying that he will do it at Stamford Bridge rather than at Camp Nou…but why? Last season saw the player coming in for some flak for a dip in his customarily high level of performance, something which caused a miffed response from the midfielder, especially when it was reported that Frank Rijkaard had asked for him to pull his socks up. This was magnified under the sensationalist lens of the Spanish press and Deco was understandably upset.
It came at a time when everything was going pear-shaped for the Catalans in last seasons failed title defence, most other players at Barça also coming in for criticism as injuries took a bite out of the squad and internal problems were aired externally. Deco could hardly be blamed for refusing to shoulder the blame as he was also suffering from a nagging right hamstring injury – as well as the apparent short-circuit in Rijkaard’s hitherto highly successful 4-3-3.
The number 20 had shone so brightly previously that Blaugrana fans had almost taken it for granted that the diminutive battler was little short of a footballing machine. The dip seemed like a dimming in the player’s wattage and alternatives were bandied about – especially as Andres Iniesta seemed to be finally reaching maturity as a first eleven option. The player’s frostiness added to the transfer speculation with a February 2006 report in the Daily Mail placing the ‘unsettled’ Deco in Benitez’s Liverpool
Deco has been viewed askew many times since he started playing in his native Brazil. Born in the São Paulo industrial suburb of São Bernardo do Campo, the young Deco moved to Indaiatuba, deep in the São Paulo boondocks. He started off playing for minnows Nacional before Brazil’s second-most supported club, SC Corinthians, spotted him. It seemed like he was set for the big time, but detractors at the Timão farmed him out after just two games, pooh-poohing him as too feeble for footballing fame
Portuguese giants Benfica snapped him up along with Corinthians franchise Corinthians de Alagoas (the same club where Real Madrid’s €30 million centre-back Pepe started a few years later). Nevertheless the Encarnados farmed the 19 year-old out again, the 1997-8 season seeing Deco do well at second division side FC Alverca. A move back to Da Luz was aborted as then-Coach Graeme Souness didn’t rate Deco as anything above reasonable.
This led to a second big-time let-down and a consequent discrete sale to northern side S.C. Salgueiros, although Deco’s showings didn’t go unseen by the canny FC Porto spotters and he came to the Dragões in the winter transfer window. This time it was third time lucky and his launching pad to final fame and fortune as his five seasons ended in glory as he was a mainspring behind an end to the FC Porto trophy drought and reached an epiphany with two years under José Mourinho.
Used as the team’s guiding light by the Portuguese tactician, Deco won the UEFA Cup over Celtic and then was on fire in the 2003-04 season, Deco instrumental as the Dragões won the Portuguese Superliga and the Champions League, scoring the second goal of the match as Monaco were downed 3-0. Mourinho was snapped up by Chelsea and Deco seemed set to join his mentor in London. Nevertheless their paths diverged as FC Barcelona sweetened the pot by offering Rijkaard offcut Ricardo Quaresma as part of the deal: FC Porto took the bait.
His four-year deal was signed, sealed and delivered, Deco moving to Barcelona where Mourinho had previously come to prominence first as Bobby Robson’s translator – having done the same job for Sir Bobby in Portugal – and then as Van Gaal’s assistant at Barça. Some fans and pundits eyed the deal as a rip-off, thinking that Deco would be a minnow in a big lake rather than a big fish in the Porto pond, but Deco proved them wrong as he carved an unquestioned place in the first eleven.
It has been a triumphant tale ever since in the Cuitat Condal, Deco becoming an idol worshipped for a never-say-die combativeness blended with skills and a nose for goal that have served the Blaugranas exceptionally well. He was a driving force behind the two consecutive Ligas as well as the Champions League triumph – both his and Barça’s second. Now that the silverware has dried up for the first time since he moved to Spain, Deco is at another crossroads – should he leave for a new challenge at Chelsea or tough it out at a renewed Barça?
It’s been a summer of speculation over whether the FC Barcelona reformulation would include a Deco exit that would enable others to step into a first team place. After all, Real Madrid are apparently tempting Andres Iniesta with a move to the Bernabéu and although Saviola's switch stung, Iniesta's loss would really hurt. Deco’s start to the 2007-8 pre-season seemed to indicate that he would, for the first time since arriving, have to start from scratch...and from the bench as he was sifted out into the ‘reserve’ team.
This reignited the smouldering embers of the supposed rift with Rijkaard, although the Coach was unruffled. “You shouldn’t read too much into two training games...I’m very happy to count on Deco”, the Dutchman recently retorted as press vultures circled for juicy scraps. Nevertheless, mammary gland-oriented tabloid The Sun was quick to jiggle things around, the London scandal sheet’s quotes echoed far and wide as Deco appeared to open the door to a move to the EPL...and Mourinho’s Chelsea.
In this supposed scenario Barça and Chelsea would put in place a swap deal that would bring Frank Lampard – whose fiancée Elen Rives is both Catalana and a Barça fan – to Camp Nou and Deco to Stamford Bridge. Nevertheless the grapevine has been torn down by the Barcelona management. Both Txiki Begiristain and Joan Laporta have denied any such move – or any move that would take Deco out of Camp Nou for any destination
Despite the blanket denials coming from the Barça boardroom the most recent match in Scotland saw Iniesta starting ahead of Deco and the number 20 having to come on in the second half. This has set tongues wagging again, although they should be held awhile as none other than flamboyant summer signing Thierry Henry also had to settle on the bench for the first forty-five minutes. It’s still early days and Rijkaard is not making any definitive statements of intent
Others claim that Deco has no place in a hypothetical 3-4-3 that would see Ronaldinho Gaúcho slip down into the vertex of a diamond midfield, although this is also somewhat of an exaggeration as Deco can happily strut his stuff in the outside-left role of midfield. Then again why battle for recognition at a club where you’ve won it all (except the lesser-rated Copa del Rey) when your ex-mentor is waiting with open arms in London and the club owner has a book full of blank cheques
That’s the rub – and that’s why the Deco debate is ongoing. Nobody is claiming that Deco is a spent force, although some are leaning towards the debatable opinion that he’s given what he has to give to FC Barcelona and it’s time to move onto fresh pastures. He could be in a perfect position to do so with a Coach who reacted to the €30 million Barça signing of Ronaldinho from PSG in 2003 to Catalan TV very simply: “Deco is better. Deco is better. Deco is better.”
Can Deco give more under Rijkaard or should he try for what could perhaps be the last big challenge of his career in an EPL he has expressed admiration for and a team that could allow him to bag a hat-trick of Champions League triumphs in three different clubs and three different countries? Has Deco got a case of The Blues or will he be able to play his best-ever season in a Blaugrana strip? The debate continues...
The Ongoing Deco Debate FC Barcelona are experiencing little turbulence in their pre-season as the Blaugranas prepare for a money-spinning mini-tour of Asia. The main bugbears so far are how to carefully prune the current squad, shaving off the dead wood to allow the team to grow further and really bloom this coming season. Without resorting to naming names, most pundits and fans know who they’d like to see wave goodbye, but there is one name who does divide the Barça faithful: Deco…
Anderson Luis de Souza – better known as Deco (a common nickname in Brazil for those called André or Anderson) – has been a player who has split opinions a few times before and now it appears that his continuance – or not – in Catalunya is causing doubts. It’s hardly a new obstacle in the career of the Luso-Brazilian midfielder, having faced this in both Brazil and Portugal, but it does come as the player reaches that classic milestone: his thirtieth birthday.
Deco will turn thirty on August 27th, some saying that he will do it at Stamford Bridge rather than at Camp Nou…but why? Last season saw the player coming in for some flak for a dip in his customarily high level of performance, something which caused a miffed response from the midfielder, especially when it was reported that Frank Rijkaard had asked for him to pull his socks up. This was magnified under the sensationalist lens of the Spanish press and Deco was understandably upset.
It came at a time when everything was going pear-shaped for the Catalans in last seasons failed title defence, most other players at Barça also coming in for criticism as injuries took a bite out of the squad and internal problems were aired externally. Deco could hardly be blamed for refusing to shoulder the blame as he was also suffering from a nagging right hamstring injury – as well as the apparent short-circuit in Rijkaard’s hitherto highly successful 4-3-3.
The number 20 had shone so brightly previously that Blaugrana fans had almost taken it for granted that the diminutive battler was little short of a footballing machine. The dip seemed like a dimming in the player’s wattage and alternatives were bandied about – especially as Andres Iniesta seemed to be finally reaching maturity as a first eleven option. The player’s frostiness added to the transfer speculation with a February 2006 report in the Daily Mail placing the ‘unsettled’ Deco in Benitez’s Liverpool
Deco has been viewed askew many times since he started playing in his native Brazil. Born in the São Paulo industrial suburb of São Bernardo do Campo, the young Deco moved to Indaiatuba, deep in the São Paulo boondocks. He started off playing for minnows Nacional before Brazil’s second-most supported club, SC Corinthians, spotted him. It seemed like he was set for the big time, but detractors at the Timão farmed him out after just two games, pooh-poohing him as too feeble for footballing fame
Portuguese giants Benfica snapped him up along with Corinthians franchise Corinthians de Alagoas (the same club where Real Madrid’s €30 million centre-back Pepe started a few years later). Nevertheless the Encarnados farmed the 19 year-old out again, the 1997-8 season seeing Deco do well at second division side FC Alverca. A move back to Da Luz was aborted as then-Coach Graeme Souness didn’t rate Deco as anything above reasonable.
This led to a second big-time let-down and a consequent discrete sale to northern side S.C. Salgueiros, although Deco’s showings didn’t go unseen by the canny FC Porto spotters and he came to the Dragões in the winter transfer window. This time it was third time lucky and his launching pad to final fame and fortune as his five seasons ended in glory as he was a mainspring behind an end to the FC Porto trophy drought and reached an epiphany with two years under José Mourinho.
Used as the team’s guiding light by the Portuguese tactician, Deco won the UEFA Cup over Celtic and then was on fire in the 2003-04 season, Deco instrumental as the Dragões won the Portuguese Superliga and the Champions League, scoring the second goal of the match as Monaco were downed 3-0. Mourinho was snapped up by Chelsea and Deco seemed set to join his mentor in London. Nevertheless their paths diverged as FC Barcelona sweetened the pot by offering Rijkaard offcut Ricardo Quaresma as part of the deal: FC Porto took the bait.
His four-year deal was signed, sealed and delivered, Deco moving to Barcelona where Mourinho had previously come to prominence first as Bobby Robson’s translator – having done the same job for Sir Bobby in Portugal – and then as Van Gaal’s assistant at Barça. Some fans and pundits eyed the deal as a rip-off, thinking that Deco would be a minnow in a big lake rather than a big fish in the Porto pond, but Deco proved them wrong as he carved an unquestioned place in the first eleven.
It has been a triumphant tale ever since in the Cuitat Condal, Deco becoming an idol worshipped for a never-say-die combativeness blended with skills and a nose for goal that have served the Blaugranas exceptionally well. He was a driving force behind the two consecutive Ligas as well as the Champions League triumph – both his and Barça’s second. Now that the silverware has dried up for the first time since he moved to Spain, Deco is at another crossroads – should he leave for a new challenge at Chelsea or tough it out at a renewed Barça?
It’s been a summer of speculation over whether the FC Barcelona reformulation would include a Deco exit that would enable others to step into a first team place. After all, Real Madrid are apparently tempting Andres Iniesta with a move to the Bernabéu and although Saviola's switch stung, Iniesta's loss would really hurt. Deco’s start to the 2007-8 pre-season seemed to indicate that he would, for the first time since arriving, have to start from scratch...and from the bench as he was sifted out into the ‘reserve’ team.
This reignited the smouldering embers of the supposed rift with Rijkaard, although the Coach was unruffled. “You shouldn’t read too much into two training games...I’m very happy to count on Deco”, the Dutchman recently retorted as press vultures circled for juicy scraps. Nevertheless, mammary gland-oriented tabloid The Sun was quick to jiggle things around, the London scandal sheet’s quotes echoed far and wide as Deco appeared to open the door to a move to the EPL...and Mourinho’s Chelsea.
In this supposed scenario Barça and Chelsea would put in place a swap deal that would bring Frank Lampard – whose fiancée Elen Rives is both Catalana and a Barça fan – to Camp Nou and Deco to Stamford Bridge. Nevertheless the grapevine has been torn down by the Barcelona management. Both Txiki Begiristain and Joan Laporta have denied any such move – or any move that would take Deco out of Camp Nou for any destination
Despite the blanket denials coming from the Barça boardroom the most recent match in Scotland saw Iniesta starting ahead of Deco and the number 20 having to come on in the second half. This has set tongues wagging again, although they should be held awhile as none other than flamboyant summer signing Thierry Henry also had to settle on the bench for the first forty-five minutes. It’s still early days and Rijkaard is not making any definitive statements of intent
Others claim that Deco has no place in a hypothetical 3-4-3 that would see Ronaldinho Gaúcho slip down into the vertex of a diamond midfield, although this is also somewhat of an exaggeration as Deco can happily strut his stuff in the outside-left role of midfield. Then again why battle for recognition at a club where you’ve won it all (except the lesser-rated Copa del Rey) when your ex-mentor is waiting with open arms in London and the club owner has a book full of blank cheques
That’s the rub – and that’s why the Deco debate is ongoing. Nobody is claiming that Deco is a spent force, although some are leaning towards the debatable opinion that he’s given what he has to give to FC Barcelona and it’s time to move onto fresh pastures. He could be in a perfect position to do so with a Coach who reacted to the €30 million Barça signing of Ronaldinho from PSG in 2003 to Catalan TV very simply: “Deco is better. Deco is better. Deco is better.”
Can Deco give more under Rijkaard or should he try for what could perhaps be the last big challenge of his career in an EPL he has expressed admiration for and a team that could allow him to bag a hat-trick of Champions League triumphs in three different clubs and three different countries? Has Deco got a case of The Blues or will he be able to play his best-ever season in a Blaugrana strip? The debate continues...