Oscar could really be the next big thing

Heavy links have developed over the past week regarding the transfer of Internacional’s Oscar to Chelsea, with a deal of around £20million believed to have been agreed in principle. The speed with which reports and columns were posted, literally just minutes after the story broke, with quotes from the player, his agent and club president etc was quite remarkable. It was like experiencing one of those all too familiar long/tedious summer transfer sagas in x30 fast forward!

Despite being the star of one of the most farcical transfer disputes in Brazilian history, Oscar has definitely been a success so far in his career, with the highlight undoubtedly being his hat-trick in the U-20 World Cup final last year. Since then he’s also broke the senior squad, replaced the less-consistent and injury prone Ganso as his countries #10 and is set to star at the Olympic Games later this month.

Mano Menezes has obviously been instructed to put together a young team for the World Cup in Brazil in two years time – not a simple task but there is unquestionably some incredible talent in the Brazilian leagues at the moment, with Lucas Moura, Romulo, Leandro Damiao, and Ganso etc. all having recent recent call ups.

In my opinion though, apart from Neymar, Oscar is the best of the bunch. The range and intelligence of his passing in a variety of positions is outstanding. In recent friendlies against Denmark and the USA and in particular Argentina he also really impressed me with the strength he showed on the ball despite his slight build. Comparison’s that the media have drawn to a young Kaka are understandable, and warranted in my eyes.

He may not be as well known as the rest of their targets this summer, in terms of potential though, Oscar might just be the most exciting and important signing Chelsea make this year. Having Brazil’s poster-boy #10 is certainly never a bad thing anyway.

Matthew Clark

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