We can look forward to liveliness, passion and sheer determination. In order to get to know our new attacker Fernando, we met the Brazilian on his arrival in Salzburg for an interview, and wrote down the best bets for you here. You will find the entire conversation in a video below.
Our new signing appears to be a tattoo lover. Almost the entire upper body of the 23-year-old is covered with various pieces of body art. Some of them have a very special significance, as Fernando explains:
I had my first tattoo done when I was 17 – it's a boy on a football pitch with the name of my mother there. This tattoo means a lot to me. I have another two that are very important to me - one of my first goal and another with the face of my mother.
For a long time Fernando played without belonging to a club. The dream of becoming a professional was a distant dream in his youth. He earned his money in another way on match days at home:
Before I became a pro, I was selling Tropeiro, a Brazilian bean dish, every match in front of the Minairao Stadium. At the age of 17, I took part in the Belo Horizonte Youth Cup. After the tournament I moved to Palmeiras.
The situation ahead of his move to us was not pleasant, unfortunately. Fernando's former team Shakhtar Donetsk had to stop playing in February along with all other Ukrainian teams due to the Russian invasion. At the time of the attack, the Brazilian was in Ukraine with his family, before he was able to leave for his home country:
You aren't expecting to suddenly be in a war zone. It was a difficult situation, but I had to keep calm so that my family did not get too afraid. We went to a hotel at first together with the other Brazilian players, we were safe and fine there. When we had the first opportunity to leave the country, we all did that.
Where does his sunglasses celebration come from? Why did Fernando establish his own eSports team? You can find that and even more out in the video:
