Looking to bolster their stated goal of making the NASL postseason in their first season, the San Francisco Deltas announced the signing of Brazilian soccer star Dagoberto Pelentier today.
The 34-year-old has had a long and fruitful career in the top Brazilian soccer league.
“Dagoberto brings a lot to us. He brings not only the experience but the right mentality and the right commitment,” explained Deltas coach Marc Dos Santos. “Your talking about a player who has always played in the first division in Brazil and won titles and championships with different teams. He’s been a winner wherever he went.”
“I am so happy to be going to the San Francisco Deltas for another challenge in my life,” Dagoberto said in a statement released by the team. “I am very grateful to the club to trust my work, and I am confident that we’ll have a lot of success together.”
The Brazilian midfielder/forward comes to San Francisco after one of the most successful domestic professional soccer careers in the Brazilian Série A.
Dagoberto broke into the top league with Atlético Paranaense in 2001 and helped them win the title. They also finished as the runner-up in 2004. He scored 45 times in 108 appearances for the club.
After transferring to the Brazilian powerhouse São Paulo, Dagoberto won two additional titles in 2007 and 2008. He spent a season with Internacional in 2012 and then moved to Cruzeiro, helping the team win back-to-back championships in 2013 and 2014. His five Série A titles are only second to the Brazilian legend Pele.
Dagoberto has also played for the Brazilian national U-20 and U-23 teams. Throughout his 14-year career in Brazil, the midfielder/forward scored 93 goals in all competitions.
In 2015 Cruzeiro loaned Dagoberto out to Vasco da Gama, and last year he played for Vitória. in 17 matches he did not score a goal and found himself in search for a new team this season. “Maybe in the last year wasn’t his best year but he needs a new challenge and a new place to grow and very hungry to win,” Dos Santos noted. “It was the right fit at the right moment, at the right time and it was good for everybody.”
“We were looking for another player to bring us a different dynamic in the midfield when it comes to linking the midfield with the attackers,” Dos Santos continued. “We didn’t have anyone with the characteristics of Dagoberto and wanted to bring in for the last stretch of the season more experience and a player who had a lot of games in a high-level league.”
Dos Santos envisions Dagoberto playing as an attacking midfielder behind the Deltas forwards. He is relying on the Brazilian’s track record of being able to deliver the final pass in the last third or finish an opportunity in front of goal. His versatility as a player could also see him play out wide or up top as well depending on the opponent.
The Deltas have been in negotiations with Dagoberto for over a month. They flew him up to San Francisco to meet with the coaches and teammates and see what playing and training for an expansion team in the NASL would entail.
“We didn’t want to leave any doubt. We have our difficulties as an [expansion] club,” Dos Santos said. During his visit, Dagoberto also viewed the team’s training facilities at Boxer Stadium and Beach Chalet.
“We showed him all the reality as a club, who we are, and where we train,” Dos Santos added. “He said he has no problems. He is a very humble player, and he has no ego. All of that was important. It’s the characteristic we have in the locker room and that we wanted to keep in the locker room.”
Dos Santos said that Dagoberto needs to complete his paperwork and get his work visa and he hopes that he will be able to fit in with the team when it starts the Fall Season in the NASL at the beginning of August.
“He’s going to need a couple of weeks,” Dos Santos said. “We need to do the transition in the right way, and we trust in the roster we have which has done a fantastic job until now. But sometimes you need to bring a new vibe, new blood, and a different kind of option. That is what he is going to bring to us.”
The Deltas still have an outside chance to win the Spring Season title, but the main goal is finishing in the top four and securing a postseason berth.
“We grew as a team faster than I expected,” Dos Santos said. “After every weekend in the league, we have to be in that top four position. That remains our only and sole objective. We’re all fighting and working for that.”
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OTHER TEAM NOTES:
– Coach Dos Santos isn’t overlooking the immediate challenge for the Deltas which is defeating Puerto Rico FC at home at Kezar Stadium on Sunday afternoon at 5:30 pm.
“Puerto Rico is a team that has scored a lot of goals on the road. We have to be aware of the offensive pieces they have,” Dos Santos warned. “If you are not compact and aware they can be dangerous. Then you have to be extremely fast and dynamic to exploit their defense which has struggled this season. Hopefully, we can take advantage of that.”
– San Francisco now has four Brazilians on their team with Dagoberto joining Jackson, Pablo Dyego and Renier Ferreira. The team also has four Canadian players: Nana Attakora, Kyle Bekker, Karl Ouimette, and Maxim Tissot.
– The signing of Dagoberto brings the total number of international players on the Deltas roster to seven, the maximum allowed by the league. Canadian players do not count as an international player for the NASL because the league has teams in the USA and Canada. The other international players for San Francisco are Romuald Peiser (France), Cristian Portilla (Spain), and Kenny Teijsse (Netherlands).
