Premier League player to watch: Tottenham’s Sandro

By Dominic Vieira

After months of intense pursuit, Tottenham finally sign Internacional's talent

Since last summer, Tottenham Hotspur has been desperately trying to sign Internacional’s star midfielder, Sandro Ranieri Guimarães Cordeiro. On the 23^rd March, both clubs agreed on a transfer fee and the midfielder will join Spurs in the summer after his club’s Copa Libertadores campaign. The transfer price has yet to be revealed nor the duration of the contract; but a 16 million euros fee was rejected last August.

The 21-year-old is highly popular with the fans and is another talented player produced from Inter’s prolific academy. Since breaking into the first team in 2007 he soon became a key player. He is a tall, aggressive and strong defensive midfielder and will be an ideal partner for Wilson Palacios in the centre of midfield.  However, it is unlikely that Sandro will grab a starting place straight away and Harry Redknapp may opt to rotate the talented midfielder with Tom Huddlestone. Sandro, hard working player, normally starts the offensive plays for Inter and has a good distribution on the ball.

However, Sandro is not yet a complete football player but has the qualities to become one. He does not score many goals for a midfielder and needs to work on his shooting. He is not the best header on the ball which may be a problem if he would play as a holding midfielder instead of a centre midfielder. Finally, he does not have the vision and skill of completing long passes which is a disadvantage for playing in the Premier League.  Having said that, Sandro’s development has not finished and over the next two to three years we will see a talented midfielder transform into a world class one.

Sandro is a natural leader on the pitch and this was clearly evident with when he captained the Under-20 team for the 2009 South American Youth Championship, which Brazil won. On September the 9th 2009, the defensive midfielder gained his first senior cap for his country playing against Chile in a World Cup qualifier. Sandro is not expected to be chosen for the 2010 World Cup but is seen as Gilberto Silva’s future replacement.

The final question is whether Sandro will be able to adapt to the English game and lifestyle or not. Sandro is focussed and a professional person, he should have no problems settling in London and will set White Hart Lane on fire.