W
hen fans of
Fluminense
flocked to Rio
de Janeiro
airport to
welcome
new signing Paulo Henrique Ganso,
some compared it to the reception
given to Ronaldinho when he joined
the club in 2015. But there was, of
course, one very obvious difference.
Ronaldinho was beyond any doubt a
genuine world star, the biggest and most
entertaining name in the global game
for an all-too-brief period. What he did
in a Barcelona shirt between 2004 and
2006 captivated a worldwide audience
in a way that few players have ever done,
storing up a vast quantity of goodwill that
greets him wherever he travels.
The case of Ganso, however, is entirely
different. The hopes that he generated a
decade ago have never come remotely
close to being realised and he returned
from European football not as some
conquering hero seeking to wind down
his career, and bask in glories from the
past, but as someone yet to prove that
he can be decisive at the highest level.
He has never been a star – except,
perhaps in his own mind, and certainly
in the minds of some in Brazilian football
who were far too quick to reach for
undeserved superlatives.
The key to his story took place in the
first few months of 2010.
Ganso and a teenage Neymar had a
glorious time together at Santos: Neymar
supplied the tricks and incisive dribbles,
Ganso the elegant, left-footed poise and
the killer pass. At the time, many thought
Ganso was the better of the two, the onewith the brighter future.
But missing from this analysis was any
sense of context. Santos were playing in
the Sao Paulo state championship and
practically had the field to themselves as
their chief rivals – Corinthians, Palmeiras
and Sao Paulo – were all giving priority
to the Libertadores Cup.
Ganso and Neymar put on a show,
but the standard of the opposition left
a lot to be desired. Yet such evidence
was at times used to draw the conclusion
that Ganso was the best in the world in
his position, which was a ludicrously
premature verdict.
Part of the problem was the extent to
which many people wanted him to be a
superstar. The desire for an old-fashioned,
cerebral number 10 was so huge that the
wish proved stronger than the reality. And
the reality, as Clarence Seedorf explained
during his time in Brazil, was that Ganso
was neither quick enough nor dynamic
enough to operate close to goal, in a zoneNeymar contemporary back in Brazil after Euro disappointment
Paulo Henrique Ganso
Headliners
Hope...Flu’s new
signing, GansoHe has joined Fluminense, not like
Ronaldinho as a great of yesteryear
but as a great who never was