a écrit le 4 novembre 2005 à 19h06 Edgar for Angola
By Phil Minshull
BBC Sport, Spain
Angola-born Edgar Patricio Carvalho Pachecho is seeking Fifa clearance to play for the country of his birth despite having turned out for Portugal's B team.
Edgar is keen to go to next year's World Cup finals with Angola after deciding that his prospects of going to Germany with Portugal have reached a dead end.
"I've presented my case to Fifa and I expect to hear back from them in a month. I hope they give me permission to play for Angola but if I don't, then I'll be cheering them on from the stands," Edgar said.
"I have dual nationality and I could go to the World Cup with either Angola or Portugal. My heart is divided but I feel a little more for Angola," added the 28-year-old player who was born in Luanda.
It's more difficult to score goals when you are out on the wing
Edgar
Edgar said that there had been a series of informal approaches from Angola about his availability and eligibility ever since the Palancas Negras booked their tickets to Germany last month.
He is friends with several of the current generation of Angolan internationals, many of whom play or have played club football in Portugal, including Pedro Mantorras and Akwa.
The opening weeks of the 2005/06 season have been very fruitful for Edgar who has scored three goals for Malaga in Spain's La Liga.
"It's more difficult to score goals when you are out on the wing but my coach has given me freedom to come into the centre.
"I'm not the sort of player who stays on the flanks and the coach told me to change what other people have told me to do before."
Edgar started his professional career with Estoril in Portugal when he was 16 before moving as a teenager to, firstly, Vitoria Setubal and then Benfica.
Spanish giants Real Madrid signed him from Benfica when he was 21 but he never played a single competitive game for them.
He was loaned out to Malaga midway through the 1998-99 season and has been at the Mediterranean coast club ever since, apart from one brief spell when he returned to the Spanish capital at Getafe.
If Edgar does get his Angolan football passport, then he will take the number of Spanish first division players currently qualified to play for African countries up to 11, although he would be the only one eligible to turn out for any of the five nations going to Germany.
Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/football/
By Phil Minshull
BBC Sport, Spain
Angola-born Edgar Patricio Carvalho Pachecho is seeking Fifa clearance to play for the country of his birth despite having turned out for Portugal's B team.
Edgar is keen to go to next year's World Cup finals with Angola after deciding that his prospects of going to Germany with Portugal have reached a dead end.
"I've presented my case to Fifa and I expect to hear back from them in a month. I hope they give me permission to play for Angola but if I don't, then I'll be cheering them on from the stands," Edgar said.
"I have dual nationality and I could go to the World Cup with either Angola or Portugal. My heart is divided but I feel a little more for Angola," added the 28-year-old player who was born in Luanda.
It's more difficult to score goals when you are out on the wing
Edgar
Edgar said that there had been a series of informal approaches from Angola about his availability and eligibility ever since the Palancas Negras booked their tickets to Germany last month.
He is friends with several of the current generation of Angolan internationals, many of whom play or have played club football in Portugal, including Pedro Mantorras and Akwa.
The opening weeks of the 2005/06 season have been very fruitful for Edgar who has scored three goals for Malaga in Spain's La Liga.
"It's more difficult to score goals when you are out on the wing but my coach has given me freedom to come into the centre.
"I'm not the sort of player who stays on the flanks and the coach told me to change what other people have told me to do before."
Edgar started his professional career with Estoril in Portugal when he was 16 before moving as a teenager to, firstly, Vitoria Setubal and then Benfica.
Spanish giants Real Madrid signed him from Benfica when he was 21 but he never played a single competitive game for them.
He was loaned out to Malaga midway through the 1998-99 season and has been at the Mediterranean coast club ever since, apart from one brief spell when he returned to the Spanish capital at Getafe.
If Edgar does get his Angolan football passport, then he will take the number of Spanish first division players currently qualified to play for African countries up to 11, although he would be the only one eligible to turn out for any of the five nations going to Germany.
Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/football/
