Why does Luciano spark such debate at São Paulo? | OneFootball

The 20th top scorer in history, the 8th of the team at Morumbi, and the 3rd top scorer for São Paulo this century. Luciano's hundredth goal placed him at levels never forgotten in the club.

It took just over five years from the first goal scored in August 2020, also against Bahia at the tricolor's home, to the hundredth scored on the night of this Saturday (25), in the victory for the Brasileirão. And in the meantime, a lot happened, with ups and downs, and a question always arises in the São Paulo fan's mind: is he an idol or not?

The question is too personal to assert anything. Everyone has their own concept of idolatry, and for me, the number 10 is obviously in the tricolor's history with his numbers and a hundred important goals, but he hasn't reached the status of an idol.

I'm also not one to completely dismiss the forward. He helped in many moments, but he wasn't the guy for the titles won, the 2021 Paulistão, the 2023 Copa do Brasil, and the 2024 Supercopa. As I said, the opinion is strictly personal, and everyone builds their pantheon of idols as they wish, without judgment.

But why does Luciano cause so much controversy in the club, to the point of reaching the absurdity of the player's family members, including his daughters, receiving threats online?

“It's all right to criticize me, boo me, and curse me when things don't happen. I have to take these criticisms, improve on them, and try, in the next game, to overcome this and help my teammates. When they go to my wife's, my mother's, my sisters' social media and threaten my daughters and my family, it becomes personal because I can't perform as well,” vented the striker in the corridors of Morumbi after reaching the milestone.

“I have a hundred goals with the São Paulo jersey. Are there fans who don't like me? They'll have to start liking and getting used to it because there are twenty players who have a hundred goals with this jersey, and I'm one of them,” Luciano contested for the haters who still persist in diminishing his importance in the club.

The big problem in the world today is the lack of balance in emotions and analyses. An athlete cannot be regular, important, a supporting player, consistent; he must always be spectacular, decisive, exceptional, genius, otherwise, he is labeled as a coward, mercenary, clumsy, and so many other adjectives heard by Luciano as often as 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 within football: “He earns an absurd amount, he has to be used to it and know how to overcome the demands,” say the most critical. It's not quite like that.

No money in the world can buy peace and good mental health, or teach you not to worry when criminals warn they know where your daughters study, so you better 'be sharp and not miss more goals.'

Does a doctor, lawyer, businessman, or any other well-paid profession go through this situation? Why is it allowed in football? Everything has a certain limit.

The conclusion on the field is quite obvious: Luciano is far from being a star, as he has never been called up for the Brazilian national team, except for a brief stint with the under-23 team. In an ideal São Paulo lineup today, with all pieces available, Lucas, Calleri, Oscar, etc., for me, he would be on the bench. But a great bench, capable of coming in and changing the game.

Nor is he a clumsy player who doesn't strive and delivers an average of almost 20 goals per year for the team, something hard to find in the struggling national football currently. He has skill, and a lot of it. He is also hot-headed beyond the limit, complains so much at times that it even irritates the tricolor fan. The phrase 'Luciano complained even about being born' uttered 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 has shown in his 313 games with the São Paulo jersey. Besides the 100 goals, he also received 78 yellow cards, an extremely high number for an attacking player, most of them for complaints. More than numbers, the performances are shaping for each fan the size of Luciano in the club, which, according to the striker, will still grow even more over the next seasons.

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