This Thursday is the day of the European match for Sporting, as the Lions host Arsenal in the first leg of the round of 16 of the European League, and therefore, we were curious to go and find out the history of the players and coaches who represent the two. slogans throughout his career. There was someone special: Viviano. a ticket?
It’s just that throughout history, only six players have represented the Lions and Gunners in their professional careers, and the first player on record is relatively “recent.” We are talking about the old English striker Ralph MeadWho represented Arsenal for long periods at the beginning of his career and moved to Alvalade in 1985, where he stayed for two seasons.
After Mead, five names followed, the first being Portuguese Roy Fonte – Today in Famalicão – very early in his career, moreover, since he spent most of his training in Alcochete and in 2006 he moved to London, where he spent, on loan from Sporting, two and a half seasons and reached his debut for the main team (3-0 against Wigan in the Carabao Cup).
He follows Joel CampbellAnd Cedric Soares And recently Hector Bellerinall of them with some representation in the two clubs (some larger, others smaller), but there is a distinct name: Emiliano Viviano.
The veteran Italian goalkeeper represented Arsenal in the 2013/14 season, on loan from Palermo, but at that time the reigning champions were the Pole. Wojciech Szysny And the space was reduced, and it ended up with just one game for the Under-21s. A few more years in Italy followed, and in 2018/19 he moved to Alvalade at the express request of Sinisa Mihajlovic, a coach who had been introduced at Sporting but had not managed even a single training session with the Lions, to be a substitute for Rui Patricio.
transalpine was close to making its debut in the first round of the tournament, against Moreirense (1-3), but ended up getting injured in the warm-up and ended up not sitting on the substitute bench. It turned out to be a rather controversial stay in Alvalade, as Viviano ended up not adding any minutes and even called it «A little vacationWho did not answer. He left in 2020 for Turkey, but ended up getting the same number of minutes with Sporting and Arsenal: zero.
