Paulo Ganso

Date of Birth: - 12th October 1989



Nationality: - Brazillian



Height: - 6ft 0inches.



Position: - Attacking Midfielder



Club History: - Paysandu

- Santos



Linked With: - AC Milan

- Chelsea

- Barcelona

- Anzhi Machakala

- Real Madrid

- Manchester United

- Manchester City

- Tottenham

- FC Porto



Estimated Market Value: - Around 20million for AC Milan, god knows the price for other clubs. I only say this as according to Ed002 Ganso has made it VERY clear that he will only join AC Milan and no one else. This was fortified by a 40million pound bid being rejected by Ganso from Anzhi last summer.







Club Career:

At the age of 15 Ganso joined Paysandu for his first professional club, but after less than a few months at the club he was snapped up by Santos in 2005.



In late 2006, Ganso unfortunately suffered a very bad knee injury which kept him out for around 7 months.



After his recovery, Ganso made his return at the end of the competitive season and played in (and won) the final of the U20 Campeonato Paulista (The FA cup of Brazil).



In the next season, Ganso's appearances were limited as he was still coming back froma serious injury, and had to work his way back into a strong team at such a young age. Ganso was however, given a run during the campain in the Copa Sao Paulo of 2008, where his team was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Sport Club Internacional.



August 2010 - It was reported that Ganso would have surgery on his injured left knee (recurring injury) and would be out for around six months.



May 2nd 2010 - Ganso won the 2010 Campeonato Paulista with Santos for the second year running after defeating Santo Andre in the final.



Ganso currently has a contract which will last until 28th February 2015 with a termination fee of 50 million Euro's. It's also very important to consider that Ganso has a lot of baggage as a player, due to his sponsorships etc, which to date, 'Group DIS' owns 45% of the sporting rights of Ganso, which means the group eligible to receive 45% transfer fee from Santos after winning the case in court.



In the 2010/2011 season, Ganso's career finally lit up after securing a regular first-team slot, playing just behind Neymar. This partnership got the world of football talking as they gelled together extremely well, and scored an absolute bundle of goals for Santos between them.



So far in the 2011/2012 season, Ganso has yet to really do much of importance, and has had a rather slow season. He has scored 1 goal, and has had 4 assists (in 9 appearances).





International Career:

In 2009 he was called up to play for Brazil in the World Under-20 Championships.



11th May 2010 - Ganso was named as one of seven backup players for 23-man 2010 FIFA World Cup squad.



26th July 2010 - Ganso was called up by the new coach Mano Menezes for a friendly match against USA.



10th August 2010 - In a friendly against the USA Ganso made his senior debut for Brazil. He was named in Mano Menezes 23 man 2011 Copa America squad. During their group game against Paraguay, Ganso assisted Jadson's goal as well as a last minute goal from Fred to tie the game at 2-2.





Club Statistics:

Santos (as of 03/04/2012) - 133 appearances, 29 goals.

I have tried finding out his assist count but I can't find it anywhere, but from what I gather it really isn't great, as assists are apparently not his strong point.





General Comments:

Ganso seems like a pretty nifty player, and is extremely Brazillian with regards to his technical ability/skill and I hate to say it, but selfishness. I'd say that his skill is sublime, and he seems to just daze fans everywhere with the things he does for Santos. However, I hate to make this a negative profile, I don't think he'd last 2 minutes in the PL. As I covered earlier, Ganso is acting like a child and is COMPLETELY set on AC Milan, and won't even consider a move to another club, regardless of his exotic buy-out clause. In my opinion though, I find it a tad... coincidental that he came into real form around the time where Neymar began to impress the world. I personally think Neymar makes Ganso looks a better player than he is, as I feel that Ganso is very one-dimensional. He's a VERY skillful player, but other than that, what is there? His finishing isn't the best even though he's very selfish, and his assist rate is apparently shocking (due to his selfishness). However, I think if he were to move to Europe, he's making the right choice in choosing the Italian league, as I feel it is a tad 'slowed down' from other European leagues, and if he can learn his trade in a ore effective way at the San Siro, then he could be a world class player. However, sufficient work needs to be done to his playing ability, and he needs to stop concentrating so much on being just skillful, as football (especially European football) is based on much more than JUST skill.



Thanks all,



Ed022-}