With Addition Of Emilio, United Sees the World

By Steven Goff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 10, 2007

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."

To pursue his soccer career, Emilio had to leave his family behind. He played for XV de Piracicaba and Rio Branco, secondary clubs in the Sao Paulo state league, until, at age 18, he did what thousands of Brazilian prospects have done during the sport's modern era: He headed to Europe.

Emilio joined German club Cologne, where he played primarily for the under-23 squad. He grew accustomed to the weather and food, and embraced a difficult language. "The coach told me, 'If you want to play on this team, you've got to learn it,' " he said. "I felt the pressure and did everything I could." Eight months later, he said, he was fluent.

Emilio's ability to speak German has been beneficial since joining United, as well. Soehn, the son of German immigrants, does not speak Spanish or Portuguese but is fluent in German. On a scale of 1 to 10, "we're both an 8," he said.

While Emilio absorbed his new language skills in Germany, his soccer proficiency lagged. He went from Cologne to Aachen and, after an upper leg injury required surgery and sidelined him for months, his contract expired and he returned to Brazil.

He played briefly for lower-division Barbarense and, he said, passed on an offer from France to go to Honduras, where he became a three-time scoring champion for Real España and Olimpia. (He also spent one season in the Mexican second division with Querétaro, a club known as Gallos Blancos, or White Roosters, and scored 10 times.)

Last year, playing for Olimpia in the Central American club championship, he won the Golden Boot award with eight goals in seven games as his team finished second to Puntarenas of Costa Rica and qualified for the Champions' Cup.

Emilio's reputation as a proven scorer preceded his arrival in Washington, and United players have been quick to embrace their new teammate, who will play at the point of the club's attacking formation behind the Bolivian-born Moreno and the Argentine-reared Gomez.

"He brings a lot of experience," Gomez said through an interpreter. "He plays with his back to the goal, which will definitely be a benefit when teams focus on Jaime or me or both. Having him here will allow us to coordinate plays and create more opportunities. He's a good addition."

Despite another new country and language, Emilio's ties remain strong with his homeland, where passion for soccer is woven deep in the fabric of society.

"It comes with life," he said. "It is hard to explain and maybe cannot be explained. It is a love that would lead any Brazilian to play this sport for free, to enjoy and just play the game. It is something within, something you would give up everything for."