BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Vágner Silva De Souza (born 11 June 1984 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), commonly known as Vágner Love, is a Brazilian football striker who plays for Shandong Luneng. A talented forward who has been described by World Soccer Magazine as possessing "mobility, flair, awareness and powerful shooting." [3]
Club career
Palmeiras
Vágner Love started his career with Palmeiras. In the 2003 season he helped them to return to the Brazilian Série A, the national First division.
CSKA Moscow
In the summer of 2004 he was bought by CSKA Moscow. For over a year after his arrival at CSKA Moscow, rumours kept appearing that he did not want to stay in Moscow, and a transfer to Corinthians in particular was hinted at numerous times. However, these rumours subsided and Vágner mentioned a number of times that he was fully committed to his contract and is looking forward to completing its full tenure.
He scored the final goal that sealed CSKA's 3–1 victory in the 2005 UEFA Cup Final over Sporting Clube de Portugal at the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon. Additionally to this UEFA Cup final, he has gone on to win the Russian Premier League title and Russian Cup in 2005, 2008, and the Russian Super Cup in 2006.
He became the top scorer in the Russian Premier League 2008, and the top scorer of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, with 11 goals in eight games.[4]
Return to Palmeiras
On 28 August 2009, following a run of poor form for CSKA Moscow, Vágner Love was signed by his former club Palmeiras on a one-year loan deal until 31 July 2010.[5] CSKA press spokesman Sergei Aksenov claimed that Vágner Love left Russia due to "urgent family problems demand(ing) his presence at home in Brazil".[6][7]
Love had a respectable return of 5 goals in 12 games for Palmeiras, but the loan spell was to be short lived. After publicly stating his concern over his safety at Palmeiras due to off-field altercations with fans, as well as his desire to play for his childhood team Flamengo, Vágner Love's loan contract with Palmeiras was ended early on 14 January 2010.[8]
Flamengo
On 15 January 2010, the day after his loan was terminated with Palmeiras, Love officially signed a loan deal with reigning Brazilian champions Flamengo lasting until July 2010.[9][10] He made his Flamengo debut against Bangu in the Campeonato Carioca on 23 January 2010, scoring 2 goals. Vágner performed very well playing for Flamengo; he went on to score 23 goals in 26 matches. His successful partnership with Adriano Leite Ribeiro at Flamengo's offensive end was called by fans "Império do Amor", or "The Love Empire", in reference to Adriano's nickname "The Emperor" and Vágner's artistic surname. The presence of midfielder Dejan Petkovic in Flamengo's squad made supporters start the year with high expectations—it was widely believed that the Serbian's passing and free-kick abilities, coupled with Adriano's and Vagner's prolific scoring would produce a top team.
However, with Adriano struggling to keep an athlete's BMI and Petkovic's legs growing old (he was already 37 then), the team failed to advance past the round-of-16 in 2010's Copa Libertadores da América.[11] Shortly after, Adriano revealed he wanted to try playing in Italy again,[12] and Flamengo couldn't convince CSKA to extend Vágner's loan, thus dismantling the previously promising "Love Empire".[13]
Return to CSKA
After a change on presidency, on January 12, 2013, Flamengo didn't pay his pendencies of rights with CSKA Moscow and Love had to leave the club. He has gone back to Russian football after one year away.[14][15] On January 16, Love was presented in Moscow and signed for three years with the club in his return.[16] Love continued his fantastic goal scoring record with CSKA on his return to the club, and propelled the club to the Russian Premier League title in 2013, after a goalless draw with Kuban Krasnodar on 18 May, the club's first league title since 2006.[17]
Shandong Luneng
On 24 July 2013, Love transferred to Chinese Super League side Shandong Luneng,[18] in a reported €12m transfer.[19]
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