Marked as a 9, Deivid cried when he had to play as a striker

Image copyright Raul Baretta / Santos FC David scored his first professional goal for Santos against Bahia

Forward David drew attention in his first professional matches as the real number 9, but when he arrived at Santos he didn’t like playing as a striker, even crying when he had to play out of the position he liked the most, being on the left side of the attack.

He was recommended to the club by former idol Marcos AssuncaoDeivid arrives at Santos in a Sub-11. He played eight matches and did not score a goal in the Campeonato Paulista in 2016. He played in jersey number 11, open on the left side. In Sub-13, it was led by coach Sergio Amaral, who recalls the boy’s “displeasure” with the change of role and the advice he gave the player.

“I knew his potential and I remember the sentence I told him, that he couldn’t be a specialist in one position at only 13 years old, that he needed to learn to play on the right and as a centre-forward. And I said there was no point in looking like crying. You’d have to learn to play in all of them because When you get to the pro and the coach tells you to play 9, you can’t tell him you only know how to play left. He only wanted to play left in the U-13 team. I put him in other positions and he became arrogant, he would cry sometimes. But that’s part of it, he was Just a kid,” Sergio Amaral recalls.

David celebrates scoring Santos’ eleventh goal. He liked to play on the left (Credit: Pedro Ernesto Guerra Azevedo/SantosFC)

Deivid was not a regular starter for the team in the 2018 Paulista Under-13 Championship. He played 15 matches and didn’t score either. In 2019, in his first year in the under-15 category, the boy also failed to establish himself among the rookies and made 13 appearances for Paulista in this category.

In 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Paulista Football Association did not hold tournaments in the U-15 and U-17 categories. Santos then decided to promote some talents from the younger categories to the under-20 category so that they could continue the formation process without interruption. Deivid was one of the selectors, but as the player himself admitted in the diary, he felt physically hard in the class.. He was only 15 years old.

With the end of the pandemic, Deivid returned to the Under-17 team to work with coach Gabriel Bussinger.

“He arrived as an attacking winger, as a left winger and played right leg inside, which is where he felt most comfortable. David came up to me, I went to talk to the athlete and, to my positive surprise, I saw a very humble boy. Very often boys from Sub-20 go down to Sub -17 without having a good head. He was a boy, when he went down, he had a good head, an open heart, and what we in the committee said, he would listen to instructions and directives. The first impression was very positive, willingness to learn and develop and very humble, knowing how Act,” Gabriel Bussinger recalls.

With the coach, Deivid established himself as a central striker and began to stand out. He scored eight goals in 18 matches, even in the first year of the category, in the Paulista campaign.

“The first tactical impression was that he was a very talented player in terms of goal, easy to score. Sometimes, when the ball was not in his range of motion, he would look for a little and when he got to his feet, he made great plays. That he disappears and when he catches the ball he appears. It was our impression of him at the end. Because he has a lot of quality, the closer he gets to the goal and closer to the center of the game, the more he participates. Then came the idea of ​​positioning him, taking him off the edge and putting him in the center of the attack. At that time, There was another promising player, Alisson, in the position, but he didn’t devote himself too much and Deivid became more decisive. He was the best scorer in the tournaments we competed in and we excelled, “quotes Gabriel Businger.

Number nine and captain in the Sub-17 of Santos

In 2022 came the boy’s consolidation. Dividing between Sub-17 and Sub-20, Deivid scored 23 goals in the competitions promoted by the Paulista Federation and began to get a big promising position for Santos base, which was even mentioned in The Guardian’s traditional list of world football’s greatest prospects.

“He fluctuated a lot at first, when he got under 17. If you take his numbers over that period, you’ll see the evolution. It’s part of the basic training process. Last year, in a conversation, I made it clear to him that he needed to be one of our positive references.” About the team and being a champion in attack in the category, his importance to the group, and the demand for improvement. In his position on and off the field. He understood it and put it into practice with all the athletes born in 2005/2006. They had a positive season, with Deivid being the team’s top scorer in all competitions that We got into it,” explains Elder Campos, who piloted the Striker in his second year as a Sub-17.

This year, Deivid participated in the Sao Paulo Juniors Cup, but he suffered from muscle problems. He spent a lot of time on the process of strengthening the muscles. In the professional, he has already played five matches and scored a goal. This Sunday, Santos’ “number 9” will be against Vasco, in Sao Januaro, for the Brazilian Championship.

Deivid celebrates with a punch in the air in honor of Pele in Copenhagen (Credit: Pedro Ernesto Guerra Azevedo/SantosFC)

This time, he won’t cry. If he repeats his victory performance against Bahia, he will have all to smile about. Thus, make Santos fans smile.

What the technicians said about Deivid:

“A very good boy, although he has a lot to learn. A good picture, a good header, a good finish,” Sergio Amaral, U-13 coach.

“My projection for Deivid is a player for the Brazilian national team, who will compete in the four major tournaments in the world. A player who is happy to play, was always very humble and listened to the coaches. He was open to listening, that’s not a bad thing… He’s like lightning, a boy from the village and he’ll give Santos is a lot of joy,” Gabriel Bossinger, U17 first-year head coach.

“Deivid has always caught my eye because of his profile. He’s athletic with long strides, fast and connected on goal. Deivid has always been a disciplined athlete and open to direction, both positive and negative feedback,” Elder Campos, Sub-17 and Sub-20 sophomore coach .