Idol worship, controversy and threats: why is Luciano divisive at São Paulo? | OneFootball

The 20th highest scorer in history, the 8th for the team at Morumbi, and the 3rd highest scorer for São Paulo this century. Luciano’s hundredth goal put him in a realm never to be forgotten at the club.

It’s been just over five years since his first goal in August 2020, also against Bahia at the Tricolor’s home, to his hundredth scored on the night of this Saturday (25th), in the victory for the Brasileirão. And in the meantime, a lot has happened, with ups and downs, and one question always comes to the mind of São Paulo fans: is he an idol or not?

The issue is too personal to make any definitive statement. Everyone has their own concept of idolatry, and for me, the number 10 is obviously part of Tricolor’s history with his numbers and a hundred important goals, but he hasn’t reached idol status.

I’m also not one of those who totally dismiss the striker. He helped in many moments, but he wasn’t the guy behind the titles won: the 2021 Paulista Championship, the 2023 Copa do Brasil, and the 2024 Supercopa. As I said, the opinion is strictly personal and everyone builds their own pantheon of idols as they wish, without judgment.

But why does Luciano cause so much controversy at the club, to the point where the absurd happens and even the player’s family members, including his daughters, receive threats online?

“It’s fine to criticize me, boo me, and curse me when things don’t go well. I have to take those criticisms, improve from them, and try, in the next game, to overcome that and help my teammates. But when they go to my wife’s, my mother’s, my sisters’ social media and threaten my daughters and my family, that’s personal, because then I can’t perform as well,” vented the striker in the Morumbi corridors after reaching the milestone.

“I have a hundred goals wearing São Paulo’s shirt. Are there fans who don’t like me? They’ll have to start liking and getting used to it, because there are only twenty players with a hundred goals in this shirt, and I’m one of them,” Luciano retorted to the haters who still insist on diminishing his importance at the club.

The big problem in the world today is the lack of balance in emotions and analysis. The athlete can’t just be regular, important, a supporting player, consistent—he always has to be spectacular, decisive, extraordinary, a genius; otherwise, he’s labeled a choker, mercenary, deadweight, and so many other adjectives Luciano has heard as many times as he’s received applause and ovations for his name, as happened in this last match.

There are those who defend the power of money to solve any problem in football: “He earns a fortune, he should be used to it and know how to handle the pressure,” say the harshest critics. It’s not quite like that.

There’s no money in the world that can buy peace and good mental health, that can teach you not to worry when thugs warn you they know where your daughters study, so you’d better ‘stay sharp and stop missing goals’.

Does a doctor, lawyer, businessman, or any other well-paid professional go through this? Why is it allowed in football? Everything has its limits.

The conclusion on the field is pretty obvious: Luciano is far from being a star, as he’s never been called up to the Brazilian national team, except for a brief stint with the under-23 squad. In an ideal São Paulo lineup today, with all players available—Lucas, Calleri, Oscar, etc.—for me, he’d be on the bench. But what a bench player, someone who could come in and change the game.

Nor is he a no-hoper who doesn’t put in the effort and delivers an average of almost 20 goals a year for the team, something hard to find in the struggling national football scene today. He’s got skill, and plenty of it. He’s also hot-headed beyond the limit, complains so much at times that he even annoys Tricolor fans. The phrase ‘Luciano even complained about being born’ spoken by a referee in a recently released audio has never been so accurate.

In the end, the number 10 reaps the rewards of what he’s shown in his 313 games wearing the São Paulo shirt. Besides the 100 goals, he’s also received 78 yellow cards, an extremely high number for an attacking player, most of them for complaining. More than just numbers, his performances are shaping, for each fan, the size of Luciano’s place at the club, which, if it depends on the striker, will only grow even more over the next seasons.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.