da 888casino： This week it emerged that Manchester United winger Nani has joined Turkish club Fenerbahce for a reported £4.25million fee on a three-year deal, ending his eight-year stay at the Lancashire club. On signing back in 2007, he was viewed as a player with great potential, but he departs simply with a feeling of unfulfilled promise.
da realsbet： Breaking into the Sporting CP team at 18, he settled in well, scoring 11 goals in 76 appearances in all competitions before leaving after two seasons for Old Trafford. Upon joining United, he praised the league: “The Premier League is one of the best leagues in the world and it will be a big challenge. I am prepared to go to England because I believe I will progress there.”
Arriving with much fanfare for a fee between £14 million and £17.85 million, alongside Brazilian midfielder Anderson, he appeared light and skinny, but with bursts of acceleration and skilful touches. Resembling a Cristiano Ronaldo light version he admitted it would be a ‘dream’ to play with his compatriot.
It was the same selfishness, ignoring of team-mates and prima-donna antics which made it nigh on impossible for him to endear himself to the home fans. This was made more frustrating by his failure to learn from his compatriot’s same difficult times at United only a couple years earlier. He had the talent to showboat, and even embarrass fellow professionals – which drew Arsene Wenger’s anger after he humiliated Arsenal full-back Gavin Hoyte in an FA Cup 5th round tie in 2008.
Getting regular playing time, he was often called up for the Portuguese national team, cementing his place in the Euro 2008 squad. After making three appearances in the tournament, he was courted by Barcelona with the Catalan club receiving a resounding ‘hands off’ from Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ronaldo joined Real Madrid in 2009 for a then record £80 million fee. It was time for understudy Nani to step out of big brother’s shadow. He had previous stated lofty ambitions of being the best in the world, but he was struggling to step up into the hole left by Cristiano in the 2009/10 season. His big issue seemed to be his lack of footballing brain, often looking selfish and leaving team-mates frustrated at his short sightedness.
It wasn’t until the season afterwards that Nani’s potential started turning kinetic with match winning performances becoming regular. Finishing the 2010/11 season with 10 goals and 18 assists, the skinny winger was taking responsibility, helping Manchester United win the Premier League title. Voted Players’ Player of the year at Man Utd’s club awards in 2011 he was still omitted from the Champions League final starting XI against Barcelona, showing Ferguson’s continued distrust of Nani’s tactical discipline.
Another good season followed before injuries disrupted much of his 2012/13 campaign. Offered a massive five-year contract in Summer 2013, his last meaningful act in a United shirt was in the 2-1 Champions League defeat to Real Madrid – getting sent off for a dubious high-footed challenge on Alvaro Arbeloa.
Going out on loan last season to former club Sporting Lisbon, the Portuguese winger hit form again, looking like he’d found his level to excel. Having not hit his predicted heights, he needs to play at the level where his status is clearly numero-uno so he is the fulcrum of the team. He will not dance to anyone else’s tune.
Lacking the mentality to perform beyond himself and push his ability to the pinnacle of his potential, many Manchester United fans will not be sad to see him leave, with only a smattering of star performances to remember him by.
He may not have been anywhere near as big of a success as Cristiano Ronaldo but he can safely say he was more of a hit than Anderson.
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