Eder’s moment caps journey from care home to Euro glory
UNDERDOG Unloved at Swansea and ignored at international level, Portugal striker had the last laugh
LISBON: All hail Éderzito António Macedo Lopes, the improbable king of Europe. How fitting that a tournament where the underdog prospered ended with the most unexpected of heroes. A man who spent his formative years in care and was largely derided as a footballer until now scored the winning goal with such poise and power it almost made the dour fare that preceded it immediately evaporate from consciousness.
Portugal’s only striker, sprung from the bench late in normal time, not only provided his country with its greatest sporting moment but simultaneously proved a legion of doubters wrong.
It is some turnaround for a player who began 2016 shivering on the bench at the Kassam Stadium, while his Swansea team were being battered by League Two Oxford United in the FA Cup. He left South Wales soon after, joining Lille on loan for the rest of the season with a total of two starts, 11 appearances and zero shots on target in English football.
Éder scored on his full debut in Ligue 1 before injuring a knee but his subsequent form was just about enough to secure a permanent move to the Stade Pierre Mauroy at the end of the season. A so-called flop and journeyman kept plodding on fruitlessly.
Until Sunday night, when everything came good for a team described by their own manager, Fernando Santos, as ugly ducklings. Perhaps tThe most ugly of all became, according to Santos, a “beautiful swan” with a solitary brilliant moment.
Of the 552 players to participate in France, few could have had a more challenging upbringing than Éder. Born in Guinea-Bissau, his family moved to Lisbon in search of a better life when he was two years old but they could not afford to look after him. He was sent to Lar O Girassol, a staterun care facility on the outskirts of Coimbra, and remained there until he started playing professional for Académica in 2008. Before that he spent time at semi-professional Tourizense in the Portuguese third tier, a feeder club for Académica based about 40 miles north-east of Coimbra.
REGIMENTED LIFE
He led a regimented life, obeying a strict timetable set by the Catholic priests in charge of the facility, but remained close to his family. Apparently Éder gave his first pay packet of `30,000 to his mother, his father now lives in London and he has a sister at university in Wolverhampton. Football was his escape – he would play on the streets outside the care home at every possible moment, attempting to emulate his hero, the Brazilian Ronaldo.
“It helped me to grow into the man that I have become and aided my football career,” Éder said last year of his time at Lar O Girassol, which roughly translates to The Sunflower. “At times it was a little bit tough, which is normal, but I enjoyed it a lot. I met so many of my friends there, and it was good to have that life experience.”
In footballing terms, the gangly striker may have become accustomed to being unloved. His international record before Sunday read 28 caps and three goals, all in friendlies. It took 18 games for him to find the net for Seleção das Quinas, in a friendly against Italy 13 months ago, and his place in this squad was questioned before and during the tournament.
There was almost an element of tokenism about his inclusion – the only genuine striker in a system where wingers were preferred up front. Yet for his evident deficiencies and regular dry spells, the 28-year-old’s enthusiasm and drive has never wavered.
Éder’s moment was a lesson to keep believing in the face of adversity. It’s encouraging that a current player and a recent retiree have called for an overhaul of the law governing the dimensions of a cricket bat. However, I don’t understand why Josh Hazlewood and Ricky Ponting would agree that the change should only apply to Test match bats.
The shorter forms also need to be a fair contest between bat and ball unless they’re viewed more as entertainment.
For more than a decade it has made no sense that bats keep improving dramatically while the boundary dimensions are being reduced.
This combination could only be satisfactory to a connoisseur of clouting or a masochist who had it in for bowlers.
As the improvement in bats started to take hold it became obvious it was changing the balance of the game in favour of batsmen.
Edges that in the past would have been a catching opportunity