Former Manchester United midfielder Anderson – a.k.a. Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira – was substituted after just 36 minutes of Internacional’s midweek Copa Libertadores 3-1 loss to Bolivia’s The Strongest, requiring oxygen as he gasped for air on the substitutes’ bench high in the mountains of La Paz. It was his second appearance for his new club: he missed a penalty in the first.
It’s a sad and all-too-familiar tale for a player once described as “the next Ronaldinho,” who won the Golden Ball at the 2005 U-17s World Cup and was capable of brilliant feats of trickery and individual goal-scoring like these while at Gremio:
United paid Porto – to whom the Brazilian moved in 2005 – north of $35m (reports vary) for Anderson in the summer of 2007, with then chief scout Martin Ferguson describing him as “better than Rooney.” He won a league and Champions League double in his first season, scoring from the spot as United overcame Chelsea in the Moscow Final. He turned in displays which saw him hailed as Sir Alex Ferguson’s long-term solution to both the departed Roy Keane and the aging Paul Scholes, capable of breaking up opposition play before launching rapier-quick counter-attacks with his bursts of speed and range of passing.
And yet that first season at Old Trafford – at the age of just 20 – has proved to be the pinnacle of his career to-date. Anderson never played as many Premier League games in a single campaign again, and in his last five years at United managed fewer than ten hours of Premier League football a season. Injuries, of course, didn’t help, but nor did Anderson’s attitude: he came back after each layoff a little tubbier than the last time and, in 2010 while recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament strain, was pulled unconscious from his burning super car having left a Portuguese nightclub at 6am.
In the end, the transfer market has delivered the most damning verdict on Anderson: still only 26, he should be in the prime of his career and at the peak of his value. Fiorentina took him on loan last season with the option of a permanent transfer, but declined the opportunity. With six months remaining on his contract, United effectively gave Anderson to Internacional this January.
In years to come, Anderson will be able to point to a trophy haul that includes six domestic league titles from his time at United and Porto, and a Champions League winners medal. Yet that silverware must surely be tainted by thoughts of what could have been: Anderson's story is ultimately one of unfulfilled potential.
Which, in many respects, does indeed make him "the next Ronaldinho."
