PROFILE

ALVARO RECOBA

CAREER

Alvaro Recoba played many seasons in Uruguay before he moved to Europe. The man pretty much averaged a goal per season in every season he played. I don´t know much about how he played there and in what positions. But his statistic from his 5 years in Uruguay is this:

58 games
62 goals

WOW!!!! What an impressive goal ratio this guy had! And I believe he played as a central midfielder with Nacional (the team he was with when we bought him).

So with these impressive stats he was off for Europe and Inter. It was back in the summer of 97 that we bought him from Nacional. Kinda unknown for us Europeans but we got to find out who he was in his first match ever with Inter against Brescia. The amazing part was that we won with 2-1 and he scored BOTH!!! goals. And what goals it was! Just some freak goals that only Recoba can do, twice! A 40-yard strike was the first goal. The ones who have seen it, remembers it.

The same season he scored against Empoli too, but no more goals was scored from this youngster at that time. It only became 8 appereances too.

Next season though would become his huge breakthrough. But not with Inter. He only played one match with us, when he later on became loaned out to Venezia, the newly promoted Serie A team. And the Venezia fans hasn´t forgotten him, yet. He became their absolute saviour and their best player. He saved them from relegation with an outstanding season where he finished off with 11 goals on 19 matches. That being his first ever season as a starter in Serie A.

Now Inter didn´t hesitate of taking him back for the coming season and so we did. Season 99/00 would become his real season for Inter. Being the replacement for the injured Ronaldo, he made a good season playing wise, but could have scored more. 10 goals on 28 matches he stopped at. But he had proved his enormous skills by playing a big part of every offensive buildup.

But this season was hampered by his demands that he should get a higher wage, a very high one too. Lippi had problems controlling his temper too. Recoba was about to lose all his support from the fans, since he showed himself to be a rather greedy player (or his agent Casal was being an idiot).

Eventually he got his new contract with a superwage which made him the best earned player in the world. This was the season 2000/01 he received that wage. The expectations was much higher now and we fans demanded miracles from him, with that wage. However, it backfired completely and Recoba never played any worse than he did this season. 8 goals in 29 matches playing on top with Vieri, was not a season that we wanna remember. He was booed by his own fans because it seemed as he never cared anymore. No doubt that this new contract changed Recoba negatively this season. He didn´t realize he had to perform as well.

More problems arrived for Recoba the coming season (the last season). His supposedly Portuguese passport showed itself to be fake. The ones who had fixed this passport completely screwed over Recoba and Recoba really had no idea it was fake. So he became suspended from Serie A for six months. I honestly, was rather pleased with that since he had been really bad the former season.
Recoba remained with the team even if he had the chance of being loaned out to another team and get some playing time, since the suspension only required in Italy. But he stayed and trained with the team without participating in the matches.

Recoba came back from suspension and now Cuper wanted to use him too. Recoba would find himself surprisingly as a left winger. He made an amazing comeback match against Atalanta wasn´t it?
Was behind two goals and showed what a player he really is.

With Recoba as a left winger we now had an attacking force there too, since Guly had been crap. Recoba finished this screwed up season for himself considering the circumstances with 6 goals on 18 matches. Which is very good from a player that had been suspended and used on a position he wasn´t familiar with.

Recoba has also been the superstar with his NT and carried them to the WC this year. He was one of the few good players for Uruguay in the WC too. In the NT he has been received a totally free role. Different from with Inter.

AS A PLAYER

It´s very difficult to say exactly what kind of player Recoba really is. He is extremely unpredictable atleast. He can make the most bizzare things coming from a player. To take shots at 40-yards or dribble past all players. He has one of the hardest left foots in the world and with an awesome precision too. And a technique that is amazing stuff!

A Recoba on form is one of the best players in the entire world. When he puts up those performances, then it´s a joy watching him. He becomes very underrated at those days, since he can have other days where he is not himself.

Recoba´s biggest problem IMO, is that sometimes he makes the wrong decision of when he should dribble and shoot instead of passing. And sometimes he can shoot but passes instead. It´s a player that I yell at the most during a match since I know what he can do. But when he makes that extra dribble instead of making a simple pass, then it becomes very frustrating.
But Recoba himself has denied that he is selfish, with explaining that his teammates has to run in the exact same moment as he wants to make the pass. Kinda makes sense, I guess.

Recoba is also very versitile in the sense that he can be played anywhere in the offensive zone. His role is supposed to be playing behind two strikers in a free role. But he has proved with Inter that he can play as a support striker and as a left winger too.
What surprised me last year is that being given orders that he should defend too, he does it. And he isn´t actually that bad either at it. He really surprised me last year when he played as a left winger and helped Gresko in defence. What he needs to learn is that he shouldn´t dribble in the defensive zone, like he did against Piacenza last season (the same match as he made that awesome freekick!!).

Recoba is also an amazing set piece player. He had one bad period with his free kicks where he had problems with getting the correct power and precision. He lacked the power for a moment. Could be that he had problems with motivation since it was the same season as he struggled a lot.
But Recoba has this thing where he positions the ball in a perfect way for making some sort of twist on the ball. He also suggest this to his teammates and can sometimes correct the ball on the ground for them. He did this for Ronaldo against Piacenza too. It´s some sort of mysterious trick he has.

Recoba has only scored one goal with Inter with his head (against Sporting). That is also one of the bad things about him. He´s not a good header, but he doesn´t have to be either, since he uses his feets and imagination in his playing style.

Recoba is the perfect example for the ones who claim that Cuper is too defensive and doesn´t allow imagination. He has played Recoba in a role where he actually wants players to defend and stay at that position.

Recoba has improved his game a lot lately, where he now has become much more unselfish and is nowadays our best passer. If he could only be more consistent in his scoring, then he would be with no doubt one of the best 5 players in the world. He is THAT good when he has an amazing day.

Jimmy Fredholm