Kerlon from the top to the forgotten

CAIRO – 18 September 2017: In 2005, a 17-year-old Brazilian named Kerlon had the football world at his feet. He was being called Brazil’s most exciting talent since Ronaldinho. The internet was invaded by clips of his ‘seal’ dribble and the scouts of Barcelona, Real Madrid and AC Milan were coming as he was named best player and top scorer at the 2005 South American U17 Youth Championships. Turn the clock forward almost exactly a decade; Kerlon seems to be an unsuccessful and injury-prone player who is fighting to get a place in the fourth tier of U.S. football.

The history of football is full of players who never achieved their potential, but there are some whose stories developed and Kerlon is one of these. It is not unusual for a player to have such an amazing development in his age, especially in their home country. However, since the days of Ronaldinho the Brazilian press hadn’t given such tribute to a player save for Neymar. More importantly, the tribute was for a good reason; this young man seemed to be the real deal.

When he scored eight goals in seven games and scored a victory with Brazil at the 2005 South American U17 Championship, the young player had already been making waves with Cruzeiro, where he had made a few appearances for the first team and already tried his ‘seal’ dribble. The seal dribble may have made him an internet sensation, but it was his technique, balance, skill, vision and unfailing ability from a dead ball situation which made him seem like a surefire future football sensation.

Scouts from the world’s big clubs were at the youth tournament. Kerlon had teammates who were also stellar such as Marcelo, Denilson and Anderson, but after two games the tournament would only have one star. Brazil’s head coach Nelson Rodriguez told his players to pass the ball to Kerlon as often as they could, such was his control. The attacking midfielder scored eight goals in seven games, including free-kicks and solo dribbles.

At the end of the tournament, Kerlon was the talk of the hour. Cruzeiro rejected an offer of £18 million ($24.4 million) from Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. The following year, Kerlon didn’t have the impact Cruzeiro had hoped. He played 26 times for the club, but was plagued by injuries. The seal dribble resulted in Kerlon being elbowed or hacked down. In 2007, Brazilian right-back Coelho suffered a five-game ban after a cruel elbow on Kerlon, who was making the seal dribble.

The following season, at the end of 2008, he signed with Inter Milan, which lent him to Chievo Verona. He played four matches, didn’t start in any one of them and did not score. What followed was a major drop in his performance, running through a series of clubs that chose not to sign him such as Ajax, Paraná, Nacional, Fujieda, Miami Dade and clubs from Barbados, the Caribbean, playing for Weymouth Wales and Villa Nova.

In December 2016, he went to Slovakia to play for Spartak Trnava. He failed to make a single appearance after eight months.