What’s With the Porn Star on the National Team?

By: Greg | August 16th, 2007

mv1 mv2 This will most likely be the question floating its way around the team bus en route to Armenia for the Euro2008 qualifier later this month when debutante Miguel Veloso boards the motorcoach. The 21-year old defensive midfielder has been handed his first convocation (yes, I’m sticking with this lame translation semi-joke for the entire season) by Big Phil to essentially take the place of the suspended Petit. Thankfully, his skills as a defensive mid/center back hybrid far outshine his desire to fill in as either a drug riddled porn king or a modern-day Sonny Crockett from Miami Vice. Perhaps the kid is not to blame for his visage, as when they say the apple rarely falls far from the tree, it’s painfully obvious that his father put him on the track of looking like an adult film icon by brandishing quite the 70’s porn star mustache himself. His brother took the whole look to another level altogether, as he was photographed outside a Lisbon club last year after a night of hard partying.

All joking aside, the guy can play. He’s more suited at this point in his career to play defensive midfielder where he has featured for Sporting as well as the U21s in this past summer’s ill-fated Euro2007 campaign. He’s a class player who speaks much more with his instincts and physical presence rather than with flair and finesse which have become hallmarks of Portuguese midfielders. He has the ability to act as an effective intermediary between the defense and the forward line and can even thump in a free kick (as seen below) if need be. Veloso’s primary strength is probably his overall “football IQ.” He has an uncanny ability to see plays developing before him and disrupt the attack before it has much chance to come to fruition. Veloso is a player who leads more by example than vocally speaking and seems to prefer to allow his play on the pitch do the talking.

Many point to his performance against Figo in the encounter with Inter Milan last year as his true arrival onto the international club stage. Veloso played like his life depended on shutting down the attack, and namely Figo, for the full 90 minutes. This is probably the game where he caused a number of clubs such as Arsenal to stand up and begin take notice of his skills. While there have been rumors of him being sold abroad, the 30 million Euro buyout clause in his contract may be causing a number of potential suitors to hold tight for at least one more full season. In all, I’m glad he got the call up, it probably can’t hurt to inject some new blood towards our back line.