Interview by Francesco Guerrieri
After playing for Sampdoria and Inter in Serie A, Eder moved to China to start the next chapter of his career at Jiangsu Suning. The Italy-Brazilian striker gave an exclusive interview to GianlucaDiMarzio.dom to describe his experience in Asia now that the league is set to start tomorrow:”This season we hope to do better. Yesterday we had lunch with president Zhang and he motivated us for the start of the season. We are finally starting after two months of preparation. We’re ready, this season I want to score as much as possible”
Eder described what it’s like to live in China:”I walk around Nanchino to learn about their culture and when I can I take the train to Shanghai. I got acclaimated to life here very well, I didn’t think it could happen so soon. The language? It’s very hard, I just learned some very basic questions, I speak in Italian with everyone, they don’t understand, we joke about it. Luckily some teammates and manager Olaroiu understand it”
Unlike himself, Eder’s wife is learning Chinese and he also has another former Serie A veteran on the team:”She studies languages, she’s learning Chinese. When I left Milano, she told me she would have gone anywhere with me. I’m lucky to have a women like her by my side. I have a good relationship with Paletta, we live in the same residence so we have lunch and dinner together”
Eder was asked about what he eats in China:”I eat ravioli of all kinds. Chinese cuisine is good but I found two Italian restaurants by my house”
What is the Chinese league like? “It’s by no means easy. We work a lot on the physical aspect and by now all the clubs have European managers that know how to put their teams on the pitch”.
