Anderson Signs for São Paulo.

By: Mauro | July 23rd, 2008

No, not that Anderson. This Anderson is 29 year-old Anderson Cléber, recently signed by São Paulo from Olympique Lyonnais in France’s Ligue 1. Anderson will remain with the club until June of 2009 and is currently recovering from a knee injury, which he sustained during a French league match against Sochaux.

Despite his injury, Anderson will not be able to compete with his new club until after August 3rd when the league activates foreign signings which makes them eligible to appear for their new clubs.

In the controversy department, Anderson developed as a young player in their bitter rivals’ youth teams, Corinthians. As a captain with that club he won the 2000 Club World Cup, the 2002 Copa do Brasil, the Rio-São Paulo tournament in 2002 and the São Paulo State Championship in 2001 and 2003. With Benfica, he won one Portuguese league title in 2005 and won a Ligue 1 Championship in 2007 and a Trophée des Champions 2007 with Lyon where he was coached by Gerard Houllier and Alain Perrin.

This is a great pick up for São Paulo so look for Anderson to provide an important amount of leadership and on field experience in big games for a side that seemed to lack a bit of presence in the Libertadores. His experience will come in handy especially while covering for regular starters that will be out on international duty or out due to injury.

Along with Anderson, São Paulo have also signed defender, Rodrigo, who’s transfer belongs to Dynamo Kiev but has been on loan to Flamengo, and striker André Lima, who was with Hertha Berlin in the Bundesliga. Anderson and Rodrigo were brought in to cover the back line since Alex Silva has been called up to play with the Brazilian Olympic team in Beijing and Joao Miranda who is expected to be out for the next four weeks due to an injury. Lima was brought in to help plug up the gaping hole left up front with Adriano’s departure to Europe.

São Paulo are also very interested in midfielder Daniel Carvalho who currently plays with CSKA Moscow in Russia. Carvalho has suited up for the Brazilian side already and would be a great player for São Paulo to sign given their limitations in midfield. CSKA has agreed to loan the player out to a Brazilian side for the following six months since his transfer to Inter Milan fell through. Word is, he is quite endeared with the idea of coming to work with Muricy Ramalho and his assistant Tata, both had a hand in the player’s development as a youngster.

Despite the departure of Adriano, São Paulo still have a competitive side. Keep an eye on the following players in the upcoming Copa Sudamericana. Aloisio will most likely be the main threat on the forward line since he was pretty solid for São Paulo in the Libertadores. Hernanes, a budding midfield star, is also still with the club but he will miss a few of the early matches since he will be in Beijing with Alex Silva representing Brazil. And I’d be remiss not to mention the monster under the three posts, Rogerio Ceni. At 35 years old, he is still the man for coach Ramalho.

Read up about Copa Sudamericana news, notes and transfers on the CONMEBOL website. And check out the Copa Libertadores 2009 wikipedia page to see which teams have qualified or are going to qualify for the 2009 edition.