Cédric Soares: São Paulo aim to finish the year with pride | OneFootball

In a great phase with Crespo, São Paulo is undefeated for eight rounds in the Brazilian Championship and is in the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores. For Cédric Soares, the club has a duty to dream big until the end of the year.

"For me, it's very important to fight for something. A club like São Paulo needs to fight for an important competition, to end the year with pride. Or else, that makes us unite and fight for anything. Of course, there are other factors in football, but we need to have this ambition, to fight until the end. I've always sought this in life and one of the reasons to come to São Paulo is to have the possibility to fight for titles. Otherwise, I would have stayed in Europe," said Cédric Soares in an interview with the club's official podcast.

After ending his contract with Arsenal and becoming a free agent, the Portuguese right-back signed with São Paulo last January. So far, he has played 35 games this season and made two assists.

Playing as a wing on the right side, in the three-defender scheme of coach Hernán Crespo, Cédric was a starter in 11 of the 13 games of the Argentine in charge of Tricolor.

São Paulo returns to the field this Saturday, at 9 pm (Brasília time), when it visits Cruzeiro, for the 22nd round of the Brasileirão. Tricolor is in 7th position, with 32 points. On the other hand, the miners are in 3rd place, with 41 points.

Arrival at São Paulo

Signed by São Paulo at the beginning of the year, the Portuguese Cédric Soares owns the team's right-back position. At 33 years old and in his first experience outside of Europe, the player spoke about his arrival at Tricolor and revealed a conversation with former defender Miranda.

"It was a funny story. I met Miranda in Portugal, we hadn't even planned it. That same night, I received the news that I could come to São Paulo. So I went to talk to Miranda and told him I was going to São Paulo. It was funny, I was very excited. I was even more surprised when I arrived. The club is even bigger than I imagined. I had an idea, but when I arrived I realized that the size was really huge," he said.

Revealed by Sporting's youth categories and with passages by Académica, Southampton, Arsenal and Fulham, Cédric Soares shared the dressing room with Miranda, former São Paulo defender, at Inter Milan between January and June 2019.

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