Al Ahli’s coup in signing the Brazilian league’s Player of the Year is a cause for lament in the country he has left.
Everton Ribeiro has been one of the symbols of a Cruzeiro team that raised standards in what is a league of irregular quality.
Cruzeiro, who won two titles and last month lost several other players to transfers abroad, will certainly miss him.
The man who would probably prefer to be known as “Everton” had he not shared the name with players in his early years at Corinthians, has not been shy about listing the distinguished other clubs, most in Europe, who were interested in luring him out of Brazil.
The Arabian Gulf League has a star, a footballer in his mid-20s whose name is listed on the honours board of Brazil’s main domestic competition next to Neymar and Carlos Tevez. They were both chosen for the “Craque do Brasileiro” (Brazilian ace) award before they set off across the Atlantic.
What should Ahli expect?
“He’s skilful and creative,” said Tostao, the former Brazil international, part of the great 1970 team and an influential columnist, “and has been very important for Cruzeiro.”
He has a marvellous left foot and an expertise with a dead ball from positions outside the penalty area. He has a fine range of tricks moving at pace, adhesive dribbling and the kind of daring that means he will try to beat a marker using keepy-uppy headers, or a “Kerlon”, as his generation call it, after a former Cruzeiro player who made it his trademark.
Ribeiro pulled off a Kerlon successfully in a Copa Libertadores match against Universidad de Chile last year.
His goal against Flamengo in the Brazilian Cup in 2013, nominated for the Fifa Puskas award, brought him to the attention of global football fans.
He started the move, zipped into the Flamengo penalty area to receive a return pass, and executed a perfect “chapeu”, the manoeuvre that gently lifts the ball over an opponent’s head, while the attacker nips around him to collect it on its way down. Ribeiro did not just tame it, he thumped a volley into the net.
A member of the Brazil Under 20 squad who won the South America title in 2009, he was selected by the senior side for the first time only last August. He needed to be patient to gain his first cap and had to move around as a young man to establish himself in the top flight.
At Corinthians, the club of his teenage years, he found himself in a queue of attacking midfielders with similar assets, including Chelsea’s Willian. He was encouraged to play at left-back to progress.
He made his breakthrough at Coritiba and his coach there, Marcelo Oliveira, took him to Cruzeiro and made him the creative hub of a fluent midfield.
He contributed a dozen goals to their back-to-back league title successes and a hefty 22 assists in 66 matches.
He may take a few games with Ahli to reach his best form as observers noted a certain fatigue to his game towards the end of last year.
Rival coaches seeking to stifle the champions were targeting Ribeiro for tight marking, and he evidently felt ready for a different environment.
Clearly, he hopes his impact in the UAE is properly noticed at home as he intends to keep his place in the Brazil national team’s set-up.
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