Melbourne Victory admits the signing process for Brazilian import Ricardinho has tested the club’s patience but they believe the striker will be worth the wait when he makes his debut in a few weeks’ time.
The club finally confirmed on Thursday that Ricardinho, who had previously played in Brazil and Korea, would join the club as the international marquee signing after his arrival during the week.
While Victory fans will have to continue to be patient for a few more weeks as the 26-year-old looks to develop more form and fitness, football operations manager Gary Cole believes they have found the right type of player to help fill the void left by Archie Thompson’s knee injury.
“We’ve been patient. Some people may say we were too patient. A lot of people were keen for us to have got this deal done a lot more quickly and we certainly would have liked to have done that,” Cole said.
“But we’ve looked through an awful lot of players to find the right person that matches our club and the way we like to play football, the game style and the structures.”
“We’ve been able to tempt him with a fantastic facilities and stadium here to play for two years.”
While it has been nearly six months since Thompson ruptured his ACL in last year’s Grand Final, Melbourne have taken their time in their quest to find a player than can firstly replace and then play alongside him.
Coach Ernie Merrick said the task of finding a striker was always difficult and they wanted to ensure they got the right player for the right price.
“In this modern world you can’t go out and sign a player who has scored a barrel load of goals at a club, because you can’t afford a transfer fee,” he said.
Merrick said that Ricardinho, nicknamed the King of the Dribble in his homeland, was a similar style of player to Thompson.
“I think he’s similar to our type of player. We’ve never signed a target man type of striker. We’ve always gone for one-on-one technical dribbling type players who have got pace,” he said.
“What we look for are the characteristics that suit our style of play. Ricardinho is very like an Archie type player, who is very like a (Robbie) Krusey, who is very like Mate Dugandzic. They all love one-on-one open space and dribbling.”
Ricardinho has been contracted to Brazilian outfit Atletico Paranaense for about seven years but has spent most of his time out on loan to a variety of other Brazilian clubs before spending a season in Korea with Jeju United last year.
While there were other more lucrative offers on the table, Melbourne used former NSL South Melbourne star Steve Panopoulos, now based in Brazil as a scout, to convince Ricardinho to come to the Hyundai A-League.
