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Ederson became the most expensive goalkeeper in history when Man City paid Benfica £35 Million to secure his services at the beginning of this summer’s transfer window. Let’s be honest, most of us had probably never even heard of the young Brazilian at the time and if the all time transfer record for a goalkeeper was to be broken this summer, we would have expected it to be for more illustrious names like De Gea, Courtois, or Lloris.
After the disaster that has been Claudio Bravo, Pep Guardiola moved quickly to improve his goalkeeping options and after paying such a large fee, there is little doubt that Emerson will be City’s number one when the Premier League kicks off in just under a months time. So let’s have a look at how he got to this point in his career and what he will add to the Citizens.
Ederson was born in Brazils largest city of Sao Paolo in 1993. He began his career at his local side Sao Paolo FC and immediately stood out as a young goalkeeper with a bright future. It was not long until European scouts started to show up at Sao Paolo youth games to watch him play and in 2008, the Portuguese powerhouse Benfica snapped him up.
Things did not quite go to plan however and after just over 2 years in their youth set up, Benfica decided to let him go to Portuguese second tier side Riberao. Riberao gave Ederson the chance to play regular first team football, which was something the youngster relished and he put together a string of fine performances. Word soon spread of his exploits and in 2012 Portuguese Super Liga side Rio Ave swooped in to sign him.
Ederson continued to impress and was selected to play for Brazil’s U23 side that won the Toulon Tournament in 2014. It wouldn’t be long until Benfica began to realise their earlier error of judgement and resigned him for £500,000 in 2015. Ederson re-joined Benfica mostly as back up to ex QPR keeper Julio Cesar. Then in March of his first season back with the Eagles, Cesar fell injured. Ederson was thrust into the limelight and has never looked back since, Benfica went on to win the last 10 games of that season and claim the Portuguese League and Cup Double.
Last season he further enhanced his growing reputation as he played an integral part in Benfica winning a historic domestic treble. So it’s understandable that he soon became one of Europe’s most sought after goalkeeping talents and City moved swiftly to secure his signature.
Ederson’s main strengths are his superb shot stopping ability and excellent distribution off either foot, as you would expect from a Brazilian Goalkeeper. One area of his play that may surprise many however is the fact he is very strong under the high ball and quite regularly elects to catch crosses instead of punching as is the way of almost all non English keepers.
Gaurdiola loves his goalkeepers to actively take part in play and it’s fair to say that it seems at times that he places more importance on a keeper’s strength with his feet than with their hands. However, that blew up in his face badly last season as Bravo, despite looking like a outfield player with the ball at his feet, sadly for City also resembled an outfield player when tasked with using his hands to perform the basics of catching and stopping the ball entering the net.
Ederson, although relatively untested at the highest level, does seem to have a lot more about him than Bravo in the goalkeeping department however. He is brave to a fault and excellent in one on one situations, his speed off his line and excellent reading of the game should be a big benefit for a Guardiola team that usually plays a high line, creating an easy target for balls in behind. Like a lot of young goalkeepers these days he is very much a sweeper keeper in the mould of the great Manual Neuer.
On analysis the young Brazilian doesn’t seem to have any real obvious weaknesses in his game. His biggest challenge will be handling the massive step up from the Super Liga to the Premier League. He will never have experienced the hounding from the crowd every time the ball is passed back to him as he will experience in England. Dealing with that pressure week in week out will be his biggest challenge. It’s an unforgiving place, the Premier League, so expect plenty of sides to put a few corners under the crossbar to sound out the young keeper.
Any new signing will tell you it’s always important to get off to a good start with a new club, but none more so than in the position of Goalkeeper, make a couple of mistakes at the start and a keeper may never get the chance to redeem himself. If things start badly for Ederson make no mistake; fans, pundits and the media will be lining up to slate him and Guardiola, all the while reminding us all what a massive mistake it was to get rid of Englands number one Joe Hart.
We wish him all the best, moving to Premier League will be a massive challenge for the youngster, but there is little doubt he has all the talent needed to succeed.
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