Eduardo da Silva

Eduardo da Silva

Personal information
Full name	Eduardo Alves da Silva
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Arsenal
Number	TBA
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 15 November 2006

Eduardo Alves da Silva (born February 25, 1983), commonly known as Eduardo da Silva or simply Eduardo and nicknamed Dudu, is a Brazilian-born Croatian football striker currently playing for Arsenal.

Club career

Loans to Bangu Atlético and Inter Zaprešić

Eduardo was born in Rio de Janeiro and started to play football at local club CBF Nova Kennedy. At the age of 15, in 1998, he moved to the Croatian capital city of Zagreb and joined Dinamo Zagreb, one of the country's top clubs. In 1999 and 2000, he spent two seasons at Brazilian club Bangu Atlético Clube and returned to Dinamo for the 2001-02 season. However, he made only four domestic league appearances for Dinamo in his first professional season with the club and was subsequently loaned for one season on Inter Zaprešić, where he scored 10 goals in 15 domestic league appearances in the 2002-03 season.

Return to Dinamo Zagreb

He returned to Dinamo for the 2003-04 season and became a regular at the club, making 24 domestic league appearances and scoring nine goals for the club in the league that season. He was subsequently also named the Croatian First League's player of the year in 2004. He continued to play regularly for Dinamo in the following two seasons of the Croatian First League and was once again named the league's player of the year in 2006. He was also the Croatian First League's second best goalscorer in the 2005-06 season, scoring 20 goals in 29 matches.

In July 2006, he first helped Dinamo to win the Croatian Supercup as he scored two goals in their 4-1 victory over HNK Rijeka and then he also played well for Dinamo in their first-leg second-round UEFA Champions League qualifier away against Ekranas, once again scoring two goals in the club's 4-1 victory. In the club's second-leg third-round qualifier for the same competition against Arsenal on August 23, 2006, Eduardo scored the only goal for Dinamo in their 5-1 defeat to the English club on aggregate. It was also the first goal scored at Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium in London during an international club competition. He also scored both goals in Dinamo's 5-2 aggregate defeat to AJ Auxerre in the first round of the 2006-07 season of the UEFA Cup in September 2006.

In the first part of the 2006-07 Croatian First League season, he led Dinamo to a first-place finish at the winter break as he netted 18 goals in 18 matches, including three braces and a hat-trick, and added another seven assists to his tally. In addition to this, he was the only player who appeared in all of the club's 18 matches before the winter break, also being in the starting lineup in each of the 18 matches. In mid-November 2006, he scored two hat-tricks in two consecutive matches he played for the Croatian national team and Dinamo in a timespan of four days.

In Dinamo's 4-0 win over Zagreb in a Zagreb derby on May 12, 2007, Eduardo scored his 30th and 31st league goals of the 2006-07 season and became the all-time most successful goalscorer of the Croatian First League, breaking a 13-year-old record set by former Dinamo striker Goran Vlaović with 29 goals scored for the club in the 1993-94 season. He finished the league season with 34 goals in 32 appearances. He also became the first player ever to score a hat-trick in a derby between Dinamo and Hajduk Split by doing it so in their clash at the Maksimir Stadium on May 19, 2007 in the final league match of the season that ended 3-0.

Arsenal

On July 2 2007, Arsenal confirmed that terms had been agreed with Dinamo Zagreb for the transfer of Eduardo on a four year contract for a €24m . fee, subject to a medical.

International career

In 2002, Eduardo took Croatian nationality and was first called up to play for the country's under-21 team at the final tournament of the 2004 European Under-21 Championship in Germany, where he appeared in all three group matches played by the Croatian team before they were eliminated from the tournament in the group stage and also scored one goal in his international debut against Serbia and Montenegro national under-2006 European Under-21 Championship, where he made a total of nine appearances and scored seven goals. However, Croatia failed to qualify for the final tournament after losing 5-2 on aggregate to Serbia and Montenegro in the play-offs, where Eduardo scored both of the two Croatia's goals. He subsequently did not make any appearances for the Croatian under-21 team as he was not eligible to play at under-21 level anymore. He won a total of 12 international caps and scored eight goals for the Croatian under-21 team, all in competitive matches.

In the meantime, he was also called up a couple of times to play for the Croatian national A-team and made his international debut at A-team level as a second-half substitute in the team's friendly match against the Republic of Ireland on November 16, 2004. In 2005, he appeared in another two friendly matches for the Croatian A-team and also played in both of the team's two matches at the 2006 Carlsberg Cup in Hong Kong. He also scored his first international goal for the Croatian A-team at the tournament, netting the third goal in the team's 4-0 victory over hosts Hong Kong in the third-place match that was played on February 1, 2006. He was subsequently also a candidate for joining the Croatian team at the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, but in the end did not get called up by the team's then-coach, Zlatko Kranjčar, who commented that Eduardo "is a young player", that he "does not diminish his value" by not selecting him, and that he "most seriously counts on him in future matches".

After the 2006 World Cup, Eduardo returned to the national team under the new coach, Slaven Bilić, and was a starting player in Croatia's friendly match against Italy on August 16, 2006 in Livorno, also scoring the first goal in Croatia's 2-0 victory. He was also a starting player in Croatia's opening Euro 2008 qualifier against Russia on September 6, 2006 in Moscow, where he played his first competitive international match at A-team level. He scored his first competitive international goal for the Croatian national A-team on October 11, 2006 in their Euro 2008 qualifier against England, when he opened the scoring by sending a looping header over the stranded Paul Robinson. Croatia won the match 2-0 and climbed to the top of the Group E table with 7 points and 9-0 goal difference from 3 matches. In the following qualifier, on road against Israel on November 15, 2006, Eduardo netted a hat-trick to help Croatia to drive home a narrow 4-3 victory over the strong Israeli side. In Croatia's next qualifier against the sturdy Macedonian outfit in March 2007, Eduardo scored the winner in the 88th minute to hand Croatia a 2-1 victory. On the 2nd of June Dudu once again was Croatia's saviour scoring the only goal in a 1-0 away victory against Estonia.