When it comes to talented wide forwards, Brazil coach Tite is spoiled for choice. Richarlison, Raphinha, Neymar, Antony, Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo Goes, Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli are all potential starters for the five-time world champions in Qatar.
But Pedro Guilherme Abreu dos Santos, or simply Pedro, as he is better known, could be the joker in Tite’s pack. In a team chock-full of tricky widemen, Flamingo’s 6ft 1ins number nine feels like something very different indeed.
A throwback centre-forward. A genuine Plan B.
If Brazil have lacked a genuine penalty-box presence in recent tournaments – forced out of necessity to call upon crumbling veterans like Fred and Jo – then Pedro’s emergence as one of the most brutal marksmen in all of South America could hardly have been better timed with the Qatar World Cup just two months away.
Nor, for that matter, was his first ever Selecao goal.
Pedro scores for Brazil amid Leeds United interest
In typical Pedro fashion, the 25-year-old was in the right place at the right time as the ball bounced loose in the area Brazil’s 5-1 thumping of Tunisia on Tuesday; stylising sweeping home to cap his first international appearance since 2020, and only his second-ever, in fitting fashion.
Pedro has now scored 20 goals for club and country this term. 16 in his last 16 outings. No one in Tite’s squad, not even Neymar, can claim to be be in better goalscoring form right now.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Leeds United have been monitoring the £15 million-rated Pedro ‘for a long time’. Premier League rivals Crystal Palace and Fulham also showed an interest over the summer, per Tuttomercatoweb. Ditto Southampton and Wolves (Guillem Balague).
Around the same time, Pedro was in the midst of his worst-ever goal drought. 10 games without a goal in all competitions for Flamengo. But form, as they say, is merely temporary. And Pedro’s class is undoubtedly permanent.
“I know what Pedro can offer,” Tite explains; Brazil’s World Cup opener against Serbia now less than eight weeks away. “I understand that he is a different sort of player.”
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