Oscar dos Santos Emboaba Júnior, the former Chelsea star player who still has a soft spot in the hearts of many Blues supporters has announced his return to the pitch after helping his side to a really important home win in his first match of the season yesterday.
The former Brazil international who still plays for Shanghai SIPG, now known as Shanghai Port, the Chinese club that paid a whopping sum of £65M for his signature back in 2016 seems to still possess the world class ability that made him a fan favourite during his time in London.
Exactly one month since the 2022/23 Chinese Super League kick-off, Oscar who had been sidelined by injury made his first appearance of the season as Shangai Port hosted Hebei.
The sensational midfielder came on at the break, with his side leading by a goal to nil. Shortly after his introduction, Hebei equalised two minutes to the hour mark and Shanghai looked on course for a back to back draw.
But with Oscar back on the pitch, Shanghai could always rely on his creativity and genius as he was able to create a goal for his striker to restore the lead with 13 minutes to go.
Despite playing just 45 minutes, Oscar was able to produce a rating of 9.0 according to SofaScore. This is more than any other player who played in the match managed to produce.
His performance heat map in the crucial 2-1 win showed just how important he was for his team as he created 2 big chances, had 60 touches and made 34 accurate passes, 7 of them being key passes with an overall passing accuracy of 85%.
At 30 years of age, Oscar doesn’t look like he’s lost his magic at all. Because what he did in that 45 minutes showed he’s still got world class ability.
It’s quite a shame that football fans didn’t get to witness Oscar’s prime years in Europe, competing with the very best teams in world football.
As a matter of fact, since he moved to the Chinese Super League after Shanghai SIPG made him a too good to refuse deal that made him one of the highest paid players in the world at the time, the Brazilian national team have not invited him.
Even when he played an incredible role in Shanghai SIPG’s first ever Chinese Super League title in 2018, he didn’t get called up.
As much as that is such a pity, no one can be blamed in the way things turned out. Oscar moved to China knowing fully well that his career path would take a really drastic turn, but the financial benefit of that decision made it worth his while.
Realistically, a return to Europe is still very much possible and the player himself has revealed that he would want to return some day.
Months ago, rumours linked Oscar with a move to FC Barcelona. Even though nothing materialised from the talks, it shows that, should he decide to want to return to European football, there won’t he shortage of clubs that would be willing to give him a chance.
Performances like the one he had yesterday, despite not playing a single minute of the opening 7 matches of the season, is more than enough evidence that Oscar dos Santos Emboaba Júnior is still a world class player.
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Content created and supplied by: WoleOscar (via Opera
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