São Paulo forward Lucas Moura, who will join Paris St-Germain in January, has praised captain and goalkeeper Rogério Ceni for his kind words and revealed his respect for the player 19 years his senior, who had described the forward as “40% of the team”.
São Paulo are preparing for the first leg of the Copa Sul-Americana final in Argentina where they will face Tigre at La Bombonera, home of Boca Juniors, on Wednesday and Lucas, 20, told reporters of his respect for the tricolor idol.
He said: “I can not thank Roger enough for those words. The guy is a myth, my idol, a example to everyone inside and outside the field.
“I can only thank him, and this only increases my responsibility. He is more than half the time, with his experience, leadership and quality, which avoids many goals.
“He always gave me a lot of strength, I admire and am very honoured to hear that.”
The fixture on Wednesday will be Lucas’s penultimate game for São Paulo and he is delighted to play it at such an historic stadium.
“I like it. It is a famous stadium, everyone speaks about it very much, I will have the opportunity to debut there and hopefully a good result to leave the title in our hands.
“I know it is a melting pot, with the crowd very close to the field. They press a lot, but I have no idea how the rest of the stadium is.”
