Ney Fabiano spent the early part of his career playing in the lower rungs of Brazilian club football, before moving to Austria for a spell. In 2007, he signed with Thailand Tobacco Monopoly FC and went on to become the Thai Premier League’s top scorer, despite his team’s 6th-placed finish. Chonburi FC snatched him up prior to the start of the current Thai season.
And now the Melbourne Victory has him on a two-year deal.
Fabiano’s arrival spells the end for fellow Brazilian Leandro Love, whose one-year loan will not be extended. Fabiano’s signing also shows that the club has learned lessons from last year’s poor recruitment strategy.
Leandro Love was the best example of Melbourne’s ill-conceived recruitment last year. Signed on the basis of a DVD, he came to Melbourne touted as a “back-up striker”. For most of the season, he wasn’t even that.
The club seems to have learned its lesson. It brought in Stefan Moore for a trial; Ernie Merrick flew to Costa Rica on a scouting mission; and it signed Ney Fabiano after witnessing the Brazilian’s talents first-hand.
With Fabiano, there’s no talk of him being a “back-up striker”. Fabiano is here to compete for a spot in the starting lineup, alongside, or in place of, Archie Thompson and Danny Allsopp. While our midfielders and defenders have had to fight for selection, Allsopp and Thompson have had little competition over the past three seasons. Fabiano changes that.
Here we have an attacker that can score goals and line them up for others. Here we have a player who was the driving force behind Chonburi FC’s 3-1 defeat of Melbourne during the Asian Champions League. Yes, Stephane Baga scored the winning goals; but Fabiano was there creating trouble for our defence for 90 minutes.
One worrying comment regarding Fabiano came from Thai football fan Druryfire, whose blog about Thai football is the best English source of information I’ve found on the Thai Premier League. According to Druryfire, Fabiano’s form in the Thai Premier League never really took off this year, despite his impressive performances in the ACL. It seems the expectations placed on him after finishing as top scorer in 2007 may have undermined Fabiano’s performances.
I just hope pressure won’t be a problem for Fabiano as he joins a new club in a new league. He is a promising talent, and one that fills a hole in the Victory squad. Here’s hoping he adds potency to Melbourne’s final third.
More on Ney Fabiano:
- Profile on Melbourne Victory website
- Some Fabiano videos on YouTube
3 responses so far ↓
1 druryfire // May 28, 2008 at 1:41 am
I don’t think pressure will hamper him in Australia. I’m sure he will be keen and adrenline well get him off to a good start.
The Thai season is on a break now until 28th June, so i’m not sure what his fitness will be like as most clubs are in hibernation and not training due to many players linking up with the national team setup.
I believe the transfer goes through on 1st July, but he should be able to link up now really.
On another note, Chonburi seem to have his replacement in Thai national team striker and rivals BEC in Terratep Winothai, whom i think someone should snap up in Australia pretty soon1
2 Astri // May 28, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Fabiano look pretty good from what we’ve seen but I am a bit wary about signing someone after watching his play only 2 games. Still, he knows where the back of the net is so he already is better than Leandro. I would have preferred Bare from Gamba Osaka but that is just wishful thinking. I think he earns more that our whole squad put together. I wonder if they enquired about Victor Simoes from Chunnam Dragons. He looked more capable than Fabiano but he was probably too expensive as well. The little Chonburi midfielder Pipop On Mo or something, he was very skillful and quick, I suppose we have too many midfielders at the moment anyway. What this highlights is that there is plenty of affordable talent in Asia that we should tap into and not always go to Sth America. I wonder if anyone is scouting in Africa as well, there must be heaps of talent there.
3 Sly // May 28, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Well I guess it’s better than just watching a DVD. Also the Thai League may not be the greatest league in the world but you must be a semi reasonable striker to become top scorer. And to be honest you’ll get more from watching a couple of games that mean something than practice games during a trial.
I guess scouting in Africa would be pretty tricky logistically but agreed there must be a vast pool of untapped talent who wouldn’t be prohibitavely expensive.
Leave a Comment