Eduardo Da Silva aka Dudu is on his way to Arsenal as Wenger makes his move to replace the loss of Thierry Henry. Soccerblog has been following the Brazilian born Croatian striker who has been in sensational from for the Croatian squad and his club, Dinamo Zagreb which won their title on the strength of his record breaking 34 goals. We also think, unlike The Times list, that he is in the top 50 players likely to make a difference in the next season. Dinamo is claiming that the transfer fee is in the region of 24 million euros (16.25 m pounds) but the BBC understands it is more in the region of 11.25m euros (7.5 million pounds).
In Dudu Arsenal gets a pure goalscorer. He is best known to English fans as the player who adroitly lobbed the ball over Paul Robinson scoring Croatia’s first goal in the 2-0 win over England. Dudu’s stated club of choice was Sevilla but Wenger probably needed to add to the depleted striking corps very quickly and offset the sense of despondency that was settling in after Thierry Henry’s departure.
Da Silva’s reaction to playing for Arsenal:
Eduardo said: “I am excited, happy and very proud that I am going to play for such a big club. Every footballer wants to play for [FC] Barcelona, Real [Madrid CF], Manchester United [FC] or Arsenal one day and I am the same. I want to progress in my career, though it is hard to leave Dinamo after eight years. I will miss the club, the dressing room. Hopefully I will be back one day, but right now I want a new challenge.” Dinamo president Mirko Barišić added: “I think the transfer is worth €24m from the money Arsenal got for selling Henry to Barcelona.”
Da Silva’s stats at Soccerbase >>