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Date of Birth: Friday, February 25, 1983
Birth Place: Brazil
Height: 175cm
Position: Attacker
Former Clubs/Teams: Dinamo Zagreb

Biography

Eduardo da Silva (nicknamed ‘Eduardo’) is a Brazilian-born striker who plays for Croatia’s national side and Arsenal in the English Premier League. He took on Croatian citizenship in 2002, and is a key man for the Croatian team. He missed almost a whole year of football, including Euro 2008, after sustaining a horrific leg-injury, but is looking back to his best. He plays as an out-and-out striker, poking home scrappy goals as well as smashing them in spectacularly from distance.

Childhood

Eduardo was born on 25th February 1983, in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. He enjoyed a happy childhood, and loved playing football on the beach, where his touch and sharp-shooting won him many friends and admirers. He was first picked up by Ceres youth team, but didn’t really get his break until Dynamo Zagreb scouted him and took him across to Croatia on trial.

Early Career

Zagreb had Eduardo on trial for 3 months before deciding to offer him a place in their U17 squad. He gained first-team experience when he was loaned out to Inter Zapresic, and impressed Zagreb with his 10 goals in 15 games.

He returned to Zagreb and won a first-team spot after scoring some fantastic goals, which quickly won him space in the fans’ hearts. His performances helped Zagreb to win the title twice over the next few seasons, as well as win the Croatian Cup, and Eduardo was voted as the league’s best player in 2004, 2006 and 2007. This caught the eye of many of the large European clubs looking for up and coming strikers.

Current Club

On 3rd July 2007, Eduardo made the move from Zagreb to London, signing for Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal for a reported fee of £7m, with some additional clauses. Eduardo struggled at first to break the established front-line of Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor, playing as the substitute striker from the bench, but did enough to put himself next in line should an injury occur to the front two.

In November, van Persie picked up an injury, pushing Eduardo into the starting line-up. He linked up well with Adebayor, and started scoring goals as the manager’s belief in him paid off. In a purple patch for the club, Eduardo scored 5 and set up many more as Arsenal continued their title challenge over Christmas and New Year. In February 2008 disaster struck, when Martin Taylor slid in over-enthusiastically on Eduardo, breaking the Brazilian’s leg. It took almost a year for the leg to heal, but Eduardo is starting to knock the goals in again!

International

Eduardo made the choice to apply for Croatian citizenship in 2002, repaying the faith that Dynamo Zagreb had shown in him. He was subsequently called up to the Croatia U21 team, and featured in their 2004 and 2006 U21 World Championship campaigns – scoring goals for the team who were unlucky not to get further in each competition.

He made his international debut aged just 21, in November 2004 against Republic of Ireland, and soon became the established striker in the squad. Although Eduardo was overlooked for Croatia’s World Cup 2006 squad, he was commended by the manager at the time and told he would have his chance in 2008. Sadly, his broken leg kept him out of Austria-Switzerland 2008, but he could take comfort from the fact that his team-mates and manager dedicated each win to him.