Player Focus: Putting Side Before Self Attracts Azzurri to Éder

On the eve of Sampdoria’s game against Inter, Sinisa Mihajlovic called a team meeting at the club’s Mugnaini training ground in leafy Bogliasco. He booked the film room for it and left the players under the impression that they were about to do some opposition analysis. Big misunderstood softy that he is, their coach instead put on ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’, the rags to riches true story of San Francisco salesman Chris Gardner, starring Will Smith. As the end credits rolled, goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano looked pensive. He had taken a couple of things from it. “Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something and if you have a dream, you’ve got to fight to protect it.”

His teammate, the striker Éder had already found happiness earlier that day when Massimo Ienca, Samp’s general secretary, phoned him to break the news that the FIGC had been in touch. He was to report to Coverciano in Florence on Monday and join up with the Italy squad ahead of the upcoming qualifier with Bulgaria and friendly with England in Turin. “It’s a great satisfaction to be part of the Italian national team,” Éder revealed in the mixed zone at Marassi on Sunday night. He had played as though inspired by it.

If anyone was still in doubt as to why Antonio Conte had called the 28-year-old up, the free-kick he detonated to settle the game with Inter offered quite the emphatic response. Éder of course couldn’t wish for a better mentor than Mihajlovic in this regard. He is after all the all-time top scorer from dead ball situations in Serie A and likes nothing more than to throw down the gauntlet and challenge his players to a set-piece duel in training.

The Serb would have been proud of this one, in particular how it moved in the air and then, for aesthetic effect, clattered in off both posts. To beat Samir Handanovic from that distance it had to be an incredible strike and, to show it wasn’t a fluke, Éder went close again moments later, curling another effort inches over the bar.

“Portaci in Europa, Éder,” cried the Sampdoria ultras in the Gradinata Sud. “Take us into Europe.” A fourth straight win moved Samp into fourth spot. A Champions League place remains a possibility. Qualification for the Europa League is nearing a certainty now that there’s a nine-point gap between them and Torino, who are playing catch up in seventh with 10 games left. The club has come a long way since Éder arrived from Cesena three years ago.

“I remember that day well,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “I made my debut for Samp at a very difficult time. We were 12 points outside the play-offs in Serie B. The mood around the place was one of disappointment. Then came a win against Grosseto that made us realise how good a team we could be and we got into the play-offs with two games to spare.” Éder scored four goals in the run-in to Samp’s return to the top-flight and broke the deadlock in their play-off semi-final against Sassuolo. “The club has improved on a continual basis in terms of performances and results in my time here,” he added. “We went through a few rough patches when we got back into Serie A but things radically changed after Mihajlovic’s appointment.”

That was 18 months ago and Samp again found themselves in the relegation zone contemplating being out of the calcio che conta - the football that matters. Mihajlovic charismatically announced himself with an old JFK line he adapted for the cause. This has become a theme of his management. Mihajlovic has dipped into Dante, quoted Che Guevarra, even rolled out a bit of Churchill, but this particular slogan has come to define his Samp.

“Ask not what Sampdoria can do for you but what you can do for Sampdoria.” Éder bought into it fully. “From day one, Mihajlovic asked us to make a lot of sacrifices for the good of the club and from that day the results started coming. Things have been going really well. It’s true, I’m a striker, but in today’s football, above all in a 4-3-3, the strikers have to be the first defenders. I am looking to improve without the ball. It’s crucial for a modern striker.”  

When it was put to him, initially, that he wasn’t putting the ball in the back of the net as often as under Mihajlovic’s predecessor, Éder replied: “Goals aren’t necessarily synonymous with good times. True, I scored four in eight games when Delio Rossi was on the bench here, but we were second bottom. I prefer this situation. I scored little to begin with but the performances were good and that was enough for me. I’m not obsessed with scoring. I don’t despair if I don’t score. Wide players have to make sacrifices and I’d do anything to be where were are in the table right now.”

This spirit runs through the group. “Mihajlovic has taught us that the good of the team comes before everything. Just think about when he left our captain Daniele Gastaldello out the team. Gasta [who signed for Bologna in January] didn’t make any fuss about it and trained as if nothing had happened.” The same goes for Sergio Romero, the Argentina international and World Cup finalist, excluded because of a contract dispute but a consummate professional who stayed ready and performed exceptionally when Viviano got hurt.

Mihajlovic has fostered a great togetherness. Everyone is pulling in the same direction. Morale is high. “We go out together, sometimes even with Sinisa and his staff.” The team has an iPod playlist it puts on in the dressing room before games. Each player has a song. Lorenzo de Silvestri’s is from AC/DC’s back catalogue. Éder’s is Bob Marley’s Could You Be Loved. And he most certainly is. Samp fans adore him not least because he has scored in a couple of editions of the Derby della Lanterna against their despised cugini, Genoa. And you can understand why coaches like Mihajlovic and Conte appreciate him too.

There’s no ego to Éder. It’s side before self for him. He keeps a low profile, rarely stepping out of the shadows. He doesn’t mind if the limelight is taken by his teammates. Before Christmas it was Stefano Okaka and Manolo Gabbiadini. Now it’s Samuel Eto’o and Luis Muriel. But Éder’s contributions are gradually being recognised. He has scored nine goals since November, eight of which have come at Marassi, the most memorable being his George Weah-like coast-to-coast against Fiorentina. Rather than hit a hat-trick here and bag a brace there, all of Éder’s goals in that time have come in different matches. Only Luca Toni, Jeremy Menez and Paulo Dybala have found the net in as many in the same period [9].

He is discreetly decisive. Eder ranks eighth in total shots [75], sixth for efforts from outside the box [58] and fifth for hitting the target from distance [12]. Only Paul Pogba [4] has scored more from range than Éder [3] this season. Inevitably, his selection and that of Palermo’s Franco Vazquez, has reopened the debate about oriundi, players born and raised outside of Italy, in this case in Brazil and Argentina, who have dual citizenship on account of Italian heritage.

Perhaps embittered after Éder inflicted the ninth defeat on Inter since his return to the club, Roberto Mancini said: “The Italian national team has to be Italian. I think an Italian player deserves to play for his country while someone who isn’t born in Italy, even if he has relatives from here, doesn’t deserve it. That’s my opinion.”  That goes against the constitution, which doesn’t discriminate against naturalised Italians, and of course tradition.

“I’m not the first, nor will I be the last to select oriundi,” Conte said. And who can blame him? While it would be preferable to put faith in boys from Rome not Rio, nor Buenos Aires, he is confronted by a stark reality. Serie A’s top 10 goalscorers include four Argentines [two of whom, Icardi and Dybala, received approaches from Italy], a couple of Brazilians [of which Éder is one] a Frenchman, and three Italians, all in their 30s, although Toni and Toto Di Natale are closer to 40.

When Éder returns from international duty he will make a pilgrimage to the Madonna della Guardia, a sanctuary dear to Genovesi hearts that Samp’s team manager Giorgio Ajazzone introduced him to when he arrived in these parts. Éder will give thanks. Hopefully for an appearance or even a goal or two in Azzurro.

Has Éder deserved his international call-up with the Azzurri? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below