It is not easy to think about the current situation of a historic team like Fluminense. After winning their first Libertadores just under 12 months ago, the South American champions have gone from the crown to fighting for survival. The reasons for the sports crisis were variedsince injuries to key figures, for example André Trindade or Germán Canowith sales of key assets. But in the worst storms, when all seems lost, is when talent emerges. At 18 years of age, Kauã Elias has emerged as the great figure of Flu in low times. Despite being eliminated from the team, his performance in the quarter-finals of the Libertadores has rekindled the interest of several clubs in January.
The ‘Kauã Elias revolution’ was meteoric in Rio de Janeiro. With Fernando Diniz he did not have the expected continuity, but with the departure of the coach in June due to the crisis of results and the arrival of Menezes everything changed. ‘Mano’ did not have an easy start, the team was at the bottom of the page and, to make matters worse, he had an injury for almost eight weeks to an idol like Germán Cano a month after his arrival. With the unfortunate injury of the star, the era of the Uberlândia native began. He did not waste his opportunity. In just over seven games he went from insignificance to exposure with five goals which eventually lifted the Flu out of the last places.
Nine in the area, with good aerial play, but with great technique, Kauã won the hearts of the fans in one swoop. Although in other teams, for example Palmeiras with Endrick (2006, same year) o Stephen (2007), the Academy filled the headlines, new hope for the Flu was eagerly awaited. As Fluminense was not the same dominant team as last year, Kauã follows the same path of evolution as his teammates. Verdãoeven scoring more goals on average than a media star like the Real Madrid forward now. He has the same efficiency in front of goal as Endrick (33.33%) and has almost the same expected goals (0.26) as Estevão (0.28). At the Maracana, such a brilliant start for a home-grown attacker has not been remembered since Pedro (star of arch rival, Flamengo).
Increase
His emergence and similarities to some of Brazil’s latest talents have already seen him knocking on the door from Europe. Real Sociedad was about to accept the last deal in exchange for almost 20 million eurossomething that the leadership of Fluminense asked for, but Cano’s injury threw his pass overboard. But not only did the team from the Basque Country try to close his contract, other clubs in England Chelsea and France also wrote down his name. Kauã Elias will go to the Old Division sooner rather than later, he has a lot of football, but first he will have to fulfill one last service with the Flu, seal salvation.
Touched by the donation
The story of the attacker in the Flu, for some people, is marked by God himself. His grandfather, José Elías, one of the pillars of his career, saw in young Kauã the potential of a period ahead when he was only three years old. “When the Holy Spirit spoke to me, I was one year old. He told me: ‘Go find Kauã and give him a ball, he is going to play soccer‘. He kicked it three times in a row and then I saw that he had something different,” said the family patriarch in an interview with the club’s official media.
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Kauã stands out as a modern forward profile, with a lot of mobility and technique when he gets, but without all the opportunities he needs to face the goal. However, in his beginning he stood out for the opposite, he looked more for associations, for helpers, than for goals. His grandfather was partly responsible for the evolution of his ‘killer’ instinct with a bet that made him grow. “I told him I would pay him 25 reais (4.5 euros) for every goal he scored”. And he started scoring like there was no tomorrow: “I started scoring a lot of goals, so he had to stop because he wouldn’t destroy it,” Kauã said in an interview. The Divine Child is now a man, a man from Fluminense.
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