More on Mantorras

I came across this interesting story on Pedro Mantorras and believe it or not it wasn’t in Angola Press, but in a paper in New Zealand. I guess people both close and far away from Angola are interested in Mantorras’ story and who can blame them? After being the prodigal son in Portugal he is now the forgotten one, having started just one game for Benefica in three years. Injuries have taken their toll on Mantorras and I’m not sure if we will ever see him truly regain his form.

My biggest concern is that he won’t get enough minutes to be in game shape for Angola this summer. As we saw in Egypt last month, our coach is reluctant to give Mantorras starters’ minutes and I can only think it is because the guy hasn’t seen enough match action. It is too bad the transfer window is closed because if anyone could benefit from a move to a lesser club where more minutes are available it would be Mantorras. I also am starting to question why he wasn’t included on the squad for the South Korea friendly. He could really use the playing experience. We’ll need his scoring ability to make a statement in Germany.