With Addition Of Emilio, United Sees the World

D.C. United hopes Luciano Emilio provides the scoring touch that has been lacking at times in recent seasons. (Jonathan Newton - The Washington Post)

Luciano Emilio swings between languages with the grace he demonstrates on the soccer field, offering clues to a nomadic past.

His Portuguese proficiency tells of his upbringing on the rural western edges of Sao Paulo state in Brazil, where at age 2 he lost his father to a tropical disease. His German is a reminder of four years in Europe and a difficult acclimation to culture and climate. His Spanish identifies the finest days of his career as a scoring champion in Honduras, where he played most of the past 4 1/2 years.

And his English, primitive and improving, is a symbol of his desire to adapt to his new surrounding with D.C. United. "It's already better than some of our guys," Coach Tom Soehn joked.

As far as United is concerned, there is one English word Emilio needs to embrace immediately: goal.

Signed last month after a four-year chase, the 28-year-old striker could become the key component in United's pursuit of both the MLS championship and a couple of international titles. After receiving his work visa this week, he has been cleared to make his debut Feb. 21 against his former club, Olimpia, in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup quarterfinals in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

"It's going to be very anti-D.C., anti-Luciano, but it's something I understand -- it's part of soccer," he said through a Spanish interpreter. "I have a new club now and I want to be the best I can for D.C. United. It's my team."

Despite having the highest-scoring attack in MLS last year, United officials felt the club lacked a menacing presence on the front line who could benefit from league MVP Christian Gomez's passing and veteran forward Jaime Moreno's creativity.

Emilio exercised an option in his contract to leave Olimpia and make D.C. his eighth club since turning pro a dozen years ago.

Said Soehn: "When you watch what he brings to the table -- the way he links up with players around him, his educated runs in the box, how he's always looking to create space for himself, the way he can hold the ball -- it's just all the qualities that you want in a forward. And I think he does all of them very well."

Emilio did not have the urban upbringing of so many Brazilian stars, such as Ronaldinho, who emerged from the shanty towns of Porto Alegre to become the world's most prized player. Emilio was born in Ilha Solteira, a town of 25,000 on the banks of the Rio Paraná, which divides the states of Sao Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul. It is an eight-hour drive to Sao Paulo.

As a youngster, Emilio moved within the far-off region twice, to Andradina and Jales, small cities near his birthplace. He was 2 when his father was bitten by an insect and stricken with Chagas disease, a parasitic infection common in Latin America.

"When my father died, the burden was on my mother," said Emilio, who has two brothers and two sisters. "It was tough for her. She worked in agriculture part of the year and cleaned houses the rest of the time to support us."