Bobô signs on as Sydney FC's marquee star

Sydney FC will unveil their new international marquee signing Bobô on Monday afternoon, putting an end to coach Graham Arnold’s search for an elite striker capable of firing them back into championship contention.

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The club has called a press conference at Allianz Stadium at 1:45pm to formalise the arrival of the Brazilian, who boasts a prolific record of scoring in both Turkey and Brazil.

 

The World Game broke the story of Bobo’s arrival earlier this month, when it was initially expected the deal would be brokered inside a week.

However, the haggling that went on between Sydney FC and the striker’s representatives meant the deal couldn’t be completed until this week.

 

But the wait proved worth it and in the end, the Sky Blues got the man they were after. He has already begun training with the team, joining in their pre-season camp on the Gold Coast this past week. With Bernie Ibini already arriving on loan from Club Brugge, the Sky Blues suddenly look much sharper in attack.

 

Bobô has been one of the Turkish Süper Lig's most prolific strikers in the past decade, bagging 90 goals in his stints at Beşiktaş and Kayserispor.

 

Despite turning 31, Bobô is still in free-scoring form and spent the past year with Brazilian side Gremio, where he added 12 goals in all competitions.

 

The striker was targeted by Arnold after he failed to get enough goals out of last year’s attack, comprised of Shane Smeltz, Matt Simon and Alex Brosque. While captain Brosque played less than half the year due to injury, Simon and Smeltz found it harder to maintain their prolific scoring records of years gone past.

The club allowed Smeltz to cut short his two-year contract and join Malaysia club Kedah, where he has rediscovered some form, bagging the winning goal in victories over Pahang and T–Team FC.

 

While the ever-industrious Simon isn’t the threat around goals as he was five or six years ago, he is proving himself as something of a kamikaze workhorse, earning another year with the Sky Blues.

 

Sydney fans feel their club never adequately replaced Marc Janko from the season before, with the Austrian marquee scoring a club record 16 goals in 24 games before negotiations broke down over a new contract. Janko went on to score 19 goals in 23 games for Swiss giants FC Basel in 2015-16 and captain his nation to Euro 2016.