Eduardo Ageu Almeida Santos entered Scottish football after 65 minutes on Livingston’s artificial surface, and Hearts’ record-breaking signing made an immediate impression, not just with the head coach who described him as a “Rolls Royce”.
Derek McInnes said that when he first set eyes on the Brazilian midfielder about four weeks ago he was impressed. He has robustness, smoothness and the coach does not believe he has a fault.
The Belo Horizonte-born midfielder, who is 5ft 11in tall, started his career with his home town club, Cruzeiro, making one appearance and then moved to Portugal to join B-SAD, based in Almada.
There, the 23-year-old appeared on nine occasions before moving to Santa Clara who loaned him to Liga Portugal 2 side, Alverca, with whom he played 27 games and scored seven goals.
McInnes was positively purring talking about the talent Hearts have just procured for a fee reported to be over £1m.
The box-to-box midfielder may have made a cameo appearance on Livingston’s plastic pitch, but showed for the ball, proved he can slot in on the left and can get a shot away.
He saw a space and drove into it had a change of pace, and the silky Brazilian, who stood out in his pink boots, also gave glimpses of his technical ability, despite the tricky surface on which rain had fallen.
McInnes added: “He makes a brilliant run across the back line, he looks after the ball, he sees a space and moves into it, and he is composed. He has a change of pace.
“I do not want to put too much pressure on him, but I am going to. When I watched video clips for the first time, the only player who I have ever signed who gave me something similar is James Maddison.”
Maddison, now 28, made 14 appearances for Aberdeen on loan from Coventry City in the 2016-17 season, when McInnes was in charge, before joining Leicester City where he appeared on 163 occasions. He then moved to White Hart Lane and has made 59 appearances.
Maddison is currently on the long-term injured list, but McInnes recalled: “I remember watching James Maddison clips and asked if we can do this. We did and I loved working with him.”
Switching back to Ageu, the coach said: “The club have done so much good work to get him here. There is a significant fee involved, but the fee is well-justified. This boy looks ready made for us now and he is a Rolls Royce, he is so natural. He’s going to do well for us, there is no doubt about that.
“He can pass, he can handle the ball in tight areas, if he can see a space he drives into it, and you can see in the short spell there, he had two shots, you can see why he has goals and assists the way he plays the game.
“He can play part of a midfield three, a midfield two and he can play tucked in off the side. He is not a six eight or ten, he has a bit of everything.”
The fans who were absent from the Home of the Set Fare Arena most wait until after the international break to get their first live glimpse of a player which has already caught the eye and is highly-rated by the powers that be at Tynecastle.
