Name: Miguel Luis Pinto Veloso
D/O/B: 05/11/1986 (age 23)Place of Birth: Coimbra, Portugal
Height: 5'11 ft/inches
Position: Midfielder (Central Defensive Midfielder)
Preferred Foot: Left
National Team: Portugal
Caps: 7
Club Teams: Olivais Moscavide (2005-06) (loan), Sporting Clube de Portugal (2006-present)
What's Wrong With You Son?: Portugalitisis see: Nuno Gomes, Ricardo Quaresma and Helder Postiga for other known cases.
Had I the heavens embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet.
But I being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet,
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
William Butler Yeats
That poem changed my life for the better it gave me a sense of who I am, I know it sounds silly or cliche but its true. I thank you William Yeats the famed Irish play write. I want young Veloso to see that poem and by the grace of some divine power maybe he will pull up his socks and realise what a fantastic talent he is. It is people like him in which the first half of the poem refers. All that heavenly embroidered cloth stuff. Meaning someone is rich and has the luxuries of life. Lets face it any professional athlete is rich, they have a precious commodity, there talent. It is this line of thinking that makes me want to slap people like Miguel Veloso. The latter part of the poem relates to folks like me, the being poor and only have dreams part. You see why I would be upset. Well here are a little facts about Sporting's number 24.
Miguel Luis Pinto Veloso was established on the 11th of May 1986 in the classical Portuguese capital Coimbra, yes Coimbra was the capital of the Iberian nation. Miguel Veloso followed in his father's footsteps Antonio in becoming a footballer and a good one at that. In his youth career Miguel played for Sporting's hated rival S.L. Benfica before becoming a turncoat and switching allegiances to the Lisbon based club Sporting. Like any young player he had to adjust to first team football so he was loaned out to little known club Olivais Moscavide where he impressed in 2005. Impressive work got him a birth in the starting eleven for Sporting and there he stayed to this day. What I really like about Veloso is his ability to play the position which he plays and not conform to the traditional traits of that position. Do you follow? No. Okay Miguel plays in that defensive midfield role which traditionally sees players who tackle hard and have an aggressive and a bit of a mean streak to them. Perfect examples are Gennaro Gattuso, Roy Keane and Patrick Viera, men of that ilk. Veloso has a really neat knack to challenge without being a cage animal. He is a very precise tackler of the ball. Going forward he is more useful than most would think, I know I always say this but he really does have great vision in that he picks a pass so well, he really does. He being Portuguese does mean he has an erotic asphyxiation for the dead ball situation, well not maybe erotic but he does know how to strike a free kick and he does so with great gusto.
With the good comes the extremely atrocious. Miguel is painfully slow. There is a lot to the lad if you get me. Speed is something he could work on. My major strive from this Portuguese prince is his homogeneous nature. I am not knocking the Portuguese Superliga but at best it is a second tier league. I may be even hasty with me wanting him to go abroad and play in one of the top leagues but I argue if you are good young you can play anywhere. Sure he could take my advice and do make it to that top league but suppose he turns out like Ricardo Quaresma and Helder Postiga his fellow countrymen and just tank overseas. Or what if he stays in the safety of Portugal like one Nuno Gomes. Sure like Senor Gomes he will be venerated like a god in Portugal and win all but the old Portuguese crown but he will not be that well known or well rounded or well respected. Nuno Gomes is good but how many of you know him?, if this is the first time you have heard of him or if all the memories are surging back of the glimpses you did see of him my point is well justified and if you do know him good for you I have no witty phrases to attach. Bit of a conundrum isn't it, either you stay and be a king of an island or go be a knight kingdom. Veloso will have to know. Offers have been made to him so he could leave and but what annoys me is his lack of urgency to leave. Now I don't work for Sporting Lisbon nor do I live in Portugal but I do know he had chances to leave but never unpicked his teeth to voice a desire to do so not because of the calibre of team because they were pretty fashionable clubs. So it is a mystery to me, maybe he likes home. I know the feeling but I do believe in fortune favours the brave and he is not being very brave.
Internationally he's look good in all ranks for the Portuguese, I mean they was not a hold lot to see but he does look like one for the future and will be. Portugal does not boast greatest defenders in the world and he is a fairly decent defensive unit and how he is mobilized for the Maroon and Green will be interesting.
Now the fun part what I think he should do to get a move on in the career department. I hate repetition but I have to say it again the boy has to get out of Portugal. Playing it safe gets you an average, bland wife named Carol who is a librarian. A fixed income job with no chance of climbing the cooperate ladder in a market that no one knows about. An income that is okay and after taxes you have $7.50 to splurge that you then in turn give to your cold wife so she can buy the Nigerian stamps that were outlawed in 1997 so she can complete her 20th century stamp collection. He just has to, the boy has a talent why confine it to just but a corner of the earth. In terms of his game he is young and will develop soon enough, that speed which I may have mentioned maybe his Achilles heel but no one said you had to be an Olympic sprinter to play the game but you do have to be a quarter miler though something I know he can cope with. He does not have to much in question to bash but I really hope he steps out of that box.
Wyvern
