Milan are becoming increasingly Brazilian, as reports suggest Santos star Ze Roberto will arrive in June.

“I will only make a decision after having finished the League and the Copa Libertadores,” he assured, although many believe the choice has already been made.

The midfielder may already be 32 years old, but he was the most impressive player for the Selecao in the 2006 World Cup.

He had been set for a move to the Rossoneri last July, only for an injury and consequent left knee surgery to nix the deal.

Ze Roberto has now fully recovered and is continuing to impress for Santos under former Selecao boss Wanderlei Luxemburgo in a new Fantasista role.

“In Europe they know me as a different player. It is better that way, as it means I can be three figures all in one.”

The South American is certainly no stranger to this continent, as he played in Germany for 10 years on the left flank, then moved to the centre for Brazil in an Andrea Pirlo-style position.

He penned a contract with Santos that only runs for 10 months, so he will be free to join the side of his choice in June 2007.

The search for a Pirlo alternative at Milan has been so far fruitless, with Johann Vogel and Yoann Gourcuff failing to adequately fill the role.


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A bit harsh on Gourcuff....it's his first season in Italy and he's trying to break into one of Europe's strongest midfields.

Ze Roberto is a great player, I was fortunate enough to watch him live at the World Cup when Brazil beat Australia. He was man-of-the-match that day. But at 32 years....do we really need him, or are we better served going for someone either at or approaching the peak of his career? Or how about giving Gourcuff some big match starts and seeing how he performs?

I'd like to see Gourcuff given more opportunity. He's got big potential and age is on his side.

i think everybody agrees with you on Gourcuff, he hasn't been given the chance to perform.

but hey, Ze Roberto fits our transfer policy (30 yrs older and free )

signing him would be the most stupid thing in the last decade.

Well this is not surprising... we did it last summer and of course it's gonna happen again this one if we're really going for Ronaldinho... so everyone that supports the R20 swap please keep it quiet, you should know already that this is the kind of players that will accompany R20 to Milan this summer...

IMO we should go for Dudu of CSKA Moscow.

I don't know about this one.

He could be useful, either on the wings or even in Pirlo's position.

He's a good player for sure. I've seen some Santos matches this year, and he's their best player.

Well, for some reason he's the most well-paid player in Brazil.

I don't really mind, in any case, it won't be more than a 2 year contract and he is always a valuable utility player. Doesn't have the big match nerves that Yoann has(for now), and is much better defensively than Yoann.

In other words, he is a true holdive mid. So Rino, him and Pirlo can easily play with defensive prowess not sacrificed for offensive ability.

He will be 33 in the summer. Typical He could be a good sub for 1-2 seasons

ze roberto would be ideal..hes free, hes the player who can push pirlo for his starting job. hes a great distributor and gets in the movements forward opportunistically. Dudu of CSKA would be a dream, he is basically pirlo minus the free kicks..but 100 times better defensively..

Zé Roberto can do Seedorf's place too. (I know... I know Carletto would never take the dutch fat arsse out )

Too many Brazilians want to come .. Too bad only one can come

If he comes he warms the bench, believe me. There is no way carlo will subsitute the fat dutchman for him. Gourcuff i believe is not confident enough yet to start in CL matches or other matches. I think by next year he will get rotated thru most matches, as a sub or starter.

why Milan like the old peoples and never plan for the future !!

Zé =
I haven't seen him this season with Santos, but when he played for Bayern he never was the same player he was for Leverkusen.
I also really don't think, that he's a Pirlo like player, I think he plays his best football as a winger on the left side. I have said this last summer and I say it now Zé--->Thanks, no.

hey, if were looking for a good andrea pirlo replacement..and he has to be brazilian, why the hell havent our club contacted shaktar about elano? tell me hes not the perfect pirlo replacement..3 years younger..same skill set..finished off two goals for brazil against argentina, played right back when alves got injured against ghana..class and versatility..

elano is more of a foward

^^^He is playing as attacking midfielder for Shakhtar

^^^^^^i know for a fact that he played in the holding role against chile and ghana recently..i was on spring break from school, so i got to come home and see some friendlies and qualifiers. he plays anywhere, almost like a michael essien..similiar touch, maybe even better finishing touch than essien..but same passing ability..and when danny alves got hurt towards the end of the ghana match..dunga put dudu in elanos role and put elano at right back..so i think it would be a great pick up..hes basically as versatile as brocchi, and more classy at each position.

If this goes on I'm afraid we are gonna loose Yoann. Hope carlo gets kicked this season.

Yoann said himself that he didn't think he was going to get much playing time in his first and second season.

When you are as young as him you don't need big pressure to play as a starter in a big club. Utilizing him smartly will help in his development.

Next year will be very telling about his future with Milan. But asking him to be a starter and do miracles in his first season could hinder his development because of all the pressure

Carlo? Why the f@ck do people always blame him? He's not the one whos responsible for the transfers! That's Galliani and Silvio. Haven't heard anyone offending them recently. Guys, don't forget that it was Carlo who made Ricky the player he is! How mamy coached would have ahd the courage to bench Rui Costa for a 21-year old no name?

You can't afford to play young players too much, in case of injury. I've heard good things about some players Villa bought in the past. Some of them haven't played yet and they've been here over 3 years.

Gourcuff will start playing more within the coming years, in a Milan shirt

I'm not blaming him for the transfers just that he has given Yoann very very little play time. I'm not asking for Yoann to be a starter just that he will get more playtime. You don't get better by sitting on the bench.

Carlo knows what he's doing. I've not known a coach that can take a player and make a success out of their career the way he does.

Exactly and let's not forget the moving Pirlo in the holding midfielder position was his idea, and it was him that practically revived Seedorf's carreer after the Inter nightmare.



Exactly

Totally right .. And believe it or not, as time passes by, Carlo is proving to the whole world of which calibure his skills are .. For Jump starting Milan in many different senerios i.e. Aftermath of Istanbul and Calciopoli (plus S7 lose), Carlo has pushed Milan to this yrs quarter finals and awithin 4 points of 4th place.

Carlo has done well and I hope he can prove everyone wrong by winning this yrs CL, with these "old wornout players"

Forza Carlo
Forza Milan

I really hope this story is a joke. Why is there an assumption that Brazilian=only option.

I don't think Brazil won the last World Cup so they are not the be all and end all. Ze Roberto is not a bad player, but frankly why would we actively desire him?

We don't need another player like him. It seems that if we are adding another AM it will be Ronaldinho and to be fair, he would be a worthy addition to any squad. We still have Seedorf who is looking a bit more like he cares this season. If we were to recruit, we should look only for the best quality, someone along the lines of Gerrard who could play either in CM or as an AM. If Deco went on sale he would be worth considering.

It just annoys me, and I see it in the Juan story, that every Brazilian wants to come to Milan, and Milan seem to be happy to let that happen. Whatever happened to a meritocracy- best player for the position. I know for a start, that if we were looking for a CB, a Brazilian is the last person I would think to fill the role, especially at a club like Milan with its historic defence. If we want a new CB, and lets face it, the sooner the better given Maldini et al, then Barzagli seems to be the best option by far. Surely we should be able to gazump him off Juve with the temptation of CL football, and who'd want to go to Juve with their distinctly blackened name. I spose, first though we must secure 4th place, and that is a different task altogether.....

I think you're generalising with the Brazilian defenders thing. And Barazagli is far from the next Nesta or Cannavaro, since everyone here speaks of him as such, he makes silly mistakes in games that cost Palermo goals, that is not what we need.

There are Brazilian defenders that are better then him, like Luisao and Alex.

Why look for a CB, when Bonera has been in his very good form for Milan. Cuz, if were gonna compare a player to Maldini, it isn't worth it and there are none

Maybe another sub for Nesta and Bonera would be the right choice

exactly

I thought it was him that wanted to come to Milan, not us wanting him?

Anyways, I think Brazilian players in general are better at football, they've proved this since well, since World football started. As long as we keep an Italian base with Brazillians to compliment we'll be fine.

The question is does one think Bonera is good enough to be our starting CB for the next 5 years or so, as that should really be the plan in order to maintain stability and build a team for the future. Ok, so he's had a good season with us this year. That is no guarantee next year will be as good, or indeed, whether his performances have been good enough in the first place.

I do not think I am willing to hold myself out to that and think finding a more established CB would be preferential.

As for the Brazilian point, if we don't want him, and we are not persuaded by players saying they want to come, which I am not sure that we aren't entirely, it should come down to best player for the position, and I could think of dozens of better qualified people for the position than Ze Roberto. I don't doubt Brazilians by nature are good, but, in this case, there are better than him. And while the occasional Brazilian full back such as Cafu maybe advantageous when an attacking element is required down the wings, otherwise I would look elsewhere, especially for CBs. Thats just me though I suppose.

I personally think Bonera might be good enough to start for us for the coming seasons. He wasn't regarded as one of the best young prospects in defence for nothing when he was with the U-21s. Plus the only bad performances he's shown in the milan shirt was when playing as a RB, and that isn't his natural position. Nesta is a god amongst defenders but I'm pretty sure that he would look mediocre also at RB.

He's literally held our defence these past few months especially when Maldini was out and he had to play Kaladze or Simic. And we have one of the best defences in Serie this season mostly because of him.

He deserves his place in our starting line-up. The only reason why I would take him off is if we get someone that is better then him and a big name. But other then that I won't take him off just because we buy someone like Juan or something like that

Brazilian players are better tha others? That's so not true! I could name dozens of brazilian players who are simply cr@p. Edu, China, Junior, Roque Junior and so on. But if you're brazilian everyone thinks " WOW! He has to be good, he's brazilian." Let's not forget that Brazil with 180 Million inhabitants is the biggest football nation in the world.

IMO we need another CB. Bonera might be playing good but other than those two (and assuming Paolo will return to his other job - the celestial one - next season) we only have Simic (Mediocre, too many fouls) and Kaladze (Who? too many nothing!).

AND I have the name right here!

The one the only, the myth, the best player ever to play for Arsenal... Pascaaaaal Cygaaaaaan!!

%*^%*(*&*)(*() Error!!

And the man is... Kolo Toure! He's pretty damn good and he's not going to cost too much. If they let go of Overmars and Vieira then I can't see why they won't let us have Kolo Toure... Wenger is also said to be an admirer of Kaladze (poor man, it's not so hard to figure out why the Gooners have been struggling defense-wise ever since he took over...) so this will be an easy task! Get Kolo outta there, he's Milan class!!! I'm not kidding... I'm right now typing an e-mail to the Arsenal staff saying "Mister Wenger I think Senderos and Djourou are the best CBs in the entire world..." That, alone, will do it!

Get me some Kolo (a$$ in Greek)!!!!!!!!!!!


Edit: Oops! I forgot... we want to sign the I-have-won-every-f@cking-piece-of-silverware-there-is-and-I-don't-feel-like-training-today-I'd-rather-go-make-another-commercial guy...

Kolo Toure in Milan? I think not. Even Wenger knows how important he's been for Arsenal this season. We have a better chance of nailing Gallas and that isn't saying much. Kaladze's going nowhere, Silvio likes him too much.

Maybe Alex from PSV and Juan are realistic options( Gee whiz...they're Brazillians and not too good). If Hamburg were under relegation threat we might have got Kompany but they're through safe, so that goes. Looks like it's gonna be Canna

Anyone else defence coach?

Noooooooo!! I want Kolo!

Kolo! Kolo! Kolo!!!!!!!!

I want Arsenal's best player in Milan and I want him now!

I'm telling you... Arsenal are good with Djourou and Senderos, aren't they!? Tell Mr. Wenger yourself I'm sure he'll listen to you. I know for a fact he enjoys your movies!!

Damn I wish I was Silvio's 5 year son and it was my birthday!

Just picture this... Nesta and Toure together... Man we can discard our full-backs with that duo. UEFA is going to makes us do so! They'll have us play with 9 men!! Picture the f@cking scene; The best CB in the world and the-man-that-isn't-the-best-CB-in-the-world-cause-I-like-Nesta-so-much, together, in red and black!


(No I'm not wacking off, cap'n! )

It doesn't matter what people think They have always been better in general. The fact that they have been the most dominant country in thie history of football doesn't exactly disagree



If we sign him, I'm going to be wearing Blue and Black next season.

Well... learn to like it!

Jokes aside... why don't you like him??
I think he's one of the most respectable figures in EPL and he's also a United rival... so he should be your ally!

And... don't worry there's no chance we're gonna get him (that is because we will not go for him, not because we can't)!

As much as I hate Man U, I also hate Arsenal.

I think he's a player that would more suit Inter, he's ALWAYS in trouble, he gets into any fight he can, I just don't see him as a real honest player.

He does anything to get players booked, I wouldn't like that at Milan.

If we must sign a Brazilian CB next year, the one I'd most like to see is Luisao. He's very, very good. Not sure if Benfica'd let him go, but I think he would do well in Milan.

Agreed, I can't see them letting him go.

But I'd be willing to spend huge amounts to get him, if I were Milan.

You're talking about Ruud van Nisterlooy? Cause the description above is certainly not one for Kolo Toure. I'm not saying he's clean but he's not that kind of man.


for less than a Berlusconi breakfast...

I don't think Nistelrooy has ever been sent off has he?
He very really argues with the referee either, he just gets on with it, that's just what I think anyways. I'm hardly an RVN fan either.

Ruud is a really dirty player! He does everything in cover...

By cover do you mean dresses up as Kolo Toure?

Just kidding!

Milan, Roma and Bayern standing in the line for him.

I hope we get him.

A German paper said Ze Roberto is on is way to Bayern.

I'd be surprise if he chooses Milan or Roma instead of the german giants.