Pedro In English Lessons With Teacher Peter Murphy
On loan Arsenal wing-back Pedro Botelho looks set to rejoin the Gunners in the summer thanks to a special loop-hole in the Home Office’s and Fifa’s ruling.
Arsenal signed Pedro in the summer from Brazilian side Figueirense for a fee of around £1 million, but as part of the agreement between the Gunners and UD Salamanca a deal was reached he would spend this term in Spain following in the footsteps of Carlos Vela, however he could not make his debut until December when he turned 18 due to rule’s on Brazilian players playing in Europe.
That could all change in the summer when or if Arsenal make an application for a work permit which is required for him to be able to play and subsequently earn money in England, with two options, they are as follows.
Now he is 18, we can use Fifa’s “Special Talent” visa option, meaning he is allowed a permit as football’s governing body and the home office agree Pedro would offer the country something, but they are only given out in exceptional circumstances for example when we brought Alexandre Song to England he came over on a special talent visa from Bastia as he had not quite lived and worked long enough in France to enable French status.
The second option of application is a traditional appeal, the English government use Fifa’s rankings when determining work permits for football players, it is worked on via a points system with the players from the top 70 sides getting preference, meaning when Arsenal applied for Carlos Vela’s visa it was rejected as Mexico were outside the 70, a problem we would not face with Pedro as Brazil are high in the standings, and the fact that before he left Figueirense he had already featured for the first team.
With news also that Pedro’s English lessons are progressing well everything looks set for the wing wizard to pull on the red and white next term, offering us another option wide on the left or even at left back, to read more about Pedro and see a video of him in action, see our previous post on him, Here
In other news, we have updated our Player Profile section, with now each player having their own page, to enable better discussion on them, so be sure to check that out.
Article By – J.Sanderson
I found a link from yesterday by a Spanish site called nortecastilla saying Arsenal would leave Pedro at Salamanca another year so that he can get an EU passport, along with other news about UDS.
I hope you’re right though, as I believe that having a bit of competition between Traore/Pedro for the back up LB slot would be good.
Good find mate.
i would expect Armand to be loaned next season for experience, so having Pedro would be useful.
Where do you think he would be of best use for Arsenal, in the long run, LB or as a left winger? And why?
LB cos he’s big (6ft 1) and will become stronger as he gets older, meaning he’ll be (hopefully) great as a LB. But in the short run neither Traore or Pedro will be tactically good enough as LB’s imo.
I would say Left Wing, he is very quick and a brilliant crosser, from the video you can see he likes to rampage forward
oh, btw, do u think then that Rene Steer will step up soon to become a second/third choice LB, because we need someone other than Traore as cover and I doubt Wenger will buy someone else
From what I’ve seen in teh reserves this season Steer looks more and more promising imo. what do u think?
Brazilians do get preferences but Mexico were never below 70 on Fifa Standings so I dont think the visa would be easily obtained for Pedro
offtopic.
But merida signed a new deal http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=489814&lid=NewsHeadline&Title=%27Amazing%27+Merida+seals+new+deal+at+Arsenal
blog updated with the news.
Not really a loophole as it’s a specific rule for promising youth players.
I also never quite got why Arsenal needed to apply for a WP for Song – He was a French youth international long before he joined Arsenal so must have had a French passport? :)
If he is coming then that might be the end of Traore’s career at Arsenal. Traore will probably be sent on a loan though. If he does really good like Muamba, he will be sold. If he shows that he is better then just really good, then he will come back to Arsenal like Bendtner.