Leandro Damião, who would have thought, ended up at Coxa

My grandparents said that there wasn’t one (in the 20s and 30s) and that there wouldn’t be a film actress more beautiful than the Swedish Greta Garbo. In fact, the photos we found show a stunning woman of rare beauty. In the seventies, in Brazil, it was common to address a man, due to his elegance or beauty, as “Greta Garbo”.

Then, playwright Fernando Mello decided to use this irony to develop an argument and create characters in a play under the title “Greta Garbo, who would have thought, ended up in Irajá”. Irajá is a poor neighborhood in the north of Rio de Janeiro.

Well summarized, in the version staged at the Guaíra theater (1974), the script dealt with a love triangle between a teacher (Nuno Leal Maia), a gay man (Raul Cortez) and a prostitute (Pepita Rodrigues).

The name of the comedy “Greta Garbo, who knew, ended up in Irajá”, became figurative language to explain the downward curve of a stellar career. Could it be used to explain Leandro Damião, in Coritiba?

Paraná from Jardim Alegre, in the beautiful Vale do Ivaí, he ran, cried and begged for a chance that was denied to him by São Paulo. In 2006, at Marcilio Dias, in the Catarinense Championship, he scored goals and more goals.

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Discovered by Internacional, even as a boy he proved that man lives more by truth than by deception. In 2010, in the Libertadores final against Chivas, he came on and scored the goal for the Colorado title. As always there is a but, it happened to Damião.

Afterwards, as an instrument of businessmen, he frustrated those who expected him to be Brazil’s center forward. He failed at Santos, Cruzeiro, Real Betis, Flamengo and Internacional (second spell), until going to Kawasaki Frontale, in Japan. There, he scored goals again. For five years he scored 65.

Although he made a lot of money, he wasted the best moment of his career due to conflicts between businesspeople and clubs wherever he went. He had many more goals to score, more money to earn and in more important places.

The graphic line of his career shows someone who has lost his way. Suddenly, he returns to Brazil and to Coritiba, which is in the second national division. If Leandro Damião is looking for the ultimate player image he can do well. Coritiba is not Irajá.