Type ‘Pedro’ and ‘Flamengo’ into Google and a hailstorm of Premier League club names ensues. Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, West Ham and Everton pop up before you even need to scroll down the page. The Brazilian striker either has bucket loads of potential, an active agent – or both.
Indeed since he has returned to his homeland after a brief spell in Italy, the 26-year-old has been one of the crown jewels of Brazilian football. Last season alone he scored 25 goals in 33 appearances. The year before that it was 29 in an astonishing 59 – with ten assists. It was that potency that saw Tite call him up for the World Cup in Qatar. Since then speculation about his future has only heightened. Here’s what you need to know about a player linked with the Reds.
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Who is he?
An out and out striker, born in Rio de Janeiro in June 1997 with the full name Pedro Guilherme Abreu dos Santos. He started playing futsal and football with Flamengo when he was just eight-years-old but he was released at 14. He spent time with smaller clubs Duquecaxiense and Artsul, before he was spotted and eventually signed by Flamengo’s Rio-based rivals Fluminense.
Progress
He made his senior Fluminese debut aged 18 and a few months later his bow in the Brazilian top flight when he came on as a substitute for Richarlison – in a 2-1 win against Flamengo. As Richarlison moved to Watford in 2017, Pedro continued to prove himself and in 2018 he scored 19 times as he scooped a number of accolades as the league’s Best Newcomer, Top Scorer and being named in Team of the Year. He was rewarded with a first call-up to the national team – only to pull out through injury and be replaced by Richarlison. It was an injury that reportedly robbed him of the chance to move to Real Madrid.
The following year he tasted glory on the international scene when, largely as a sub, he was part of the Brazil set-up which won the Toulon Tournament alongside the likes of Villa’s Douglas Luiz and Wolves’ Matheus Cunha.
That summer Fluminese knocked back bids from Bordeaux and Mexican outfit Monterrey but that September they accepted an offer from Italian outfit Fiorentina.
Italian Job
The Florence-based outfit paid €11 million and committed the striker to a five-year contract, with the player rejecting the chance to play for CSKA Moscow. He came in to replace Giovanni Simeone. However, it did not go well – he played less than an hour of football in Italy and within four months, in January 2020, he was sent back to Brazil – on loan to Flamengo.
Fiorentina’s sporting director Daniele Pradè said: “Pedro? From a technical point of view it was also a failure, we can say that, but not from an economic point of view. We knew it had to be a long journey. We hoped that in 4-5 months he could be available, and in fact the 5th month he was available again. Then Flamengo arrived, and when a club like this arrives, it's difficult for the Brazilians to say no."
Back home
Pedro returned to his boyhood club, first on loan and then permanently. By contrast to his struggles in Italy he scored within eight minutes of his first match for Flamengo. In December 2020 he signed a five year contract, with the Brazilian outfit paying Fiorentina €15m.
He has scored 93 goals in that time. He also made his debut for the full national team and was called up for the World Cup alongside the likes of Neymar, Gabriel Jesus, Vinicius Jr and Antony. Whilst watching the squad announcement he celebrated by proposing to his girlfriend Fernanda Nogueira.
Pedro made a couple of appearances in the World Cup and returned to Brazilian football to further burnish his reputation with a prolific run between January and April this year. Having spent most of his career as a traditional, powerhouse No. 9, Flamengo’s coach Jorge Sampaoli recently praised the forward for adding more tactical nous to his game, playing slightly deeper. “He has a lot of technical ability to play finding spaces. He's doing it very smartly, but it's something new for him, he's not used to it. We spoke to him, he liked it, I'm very happy.”
Contract
The striker’s current deal runs until December 2027 and for the most part Flamengo have been largely resistant to the idea of selling him. Goal claims they recently received a €20m offer from Saudi Arabia which was rejected but without ‘closing the door’, with the suggestion that €30m would be more to their liking. It has been reported the player was offered six times his current salary but prioritises his Brazil prospects.
Flamengo’s VP of football, Marcos Braz recently claimed his main objective is to keep his squad together. “We don't know if there will be any losses. Flamengo will do its best to continue with the best squad possible.
"Sometimes it is not possible not to lose any player. This question is very much a function of the window. Flamengo is very confident about the contracts it makes. These are contractual fines that systematically put Flamengo on all negotiation tables.”
Would he fit in at Forest?
Well, someone of his goalscoring pedigree would certainly be intriguing. The fee would be a club record, more than that paid for Morgan Gibbs-White and Taiwo Awoniyi – but Forest have been willing to push back the parameters for the right player.
What is clear is that Awoniyi needs support up front, with the Nigerian shouldering the burden for the goal-scoring towards the end of last season. Chris Wood has joined permanently but whether Steve Cooper views him as anything more than an option off the bench is doubtful. Forest have certainly been linked with several strikers indicating at least an intention to address the position.
Pedro would also benefit from the presence of several of his compatriots at the City Ground but if Flamengo do decide to cash in, the competition would span the footballing globe.
