The Olympiakos midfielder arrives on loan to Efesé until the end of the season with a purchase obligation in the event of promotion
Pedro Filipe Figueiredo Rodrigues, alias Pêpê, is Cartagena’s fifth signing in the winter transfer window. The Portuguese soccer player arrived in the city on Saturday night after a long trip and this Sunday afternoon he will be watching how his new teammates play against Tenerife at the Cartagonova.
The new addition to the albinegro club, 25 years old, is a widely contrasted player who has had a football career in top-class clubs. He arrives to occupy the position of attacking midfielder that Tejera vacated. The operation had been close to closing for two weeks.
He is a right-footed footballer, with an extraordinary ball strike and who is capable of finding passing lanes with ease, as well as turning and hiding the ball with precision. He is able to generate advantages with his movement because of the elegance with which he carries the ball while his head is up, so he finds passing lanes.
He likes to swing from one side of the field to the other and be very protagonist with the ball, something that, without a doubt, Luis Carrión, a Cartagena coach, likes. In addition, he has the ability to decide in one or two passes which is the best option and is capable of orienting himself. He usually moves throughout the central zone, sometimes falling to get the ball played from behind. He has an important participation in the matches (he averages 54 passes per game in his sports career) and is very accurate in the shipments (88% accuracy in the passes).
He is also a good shooter in set pieces. In his teams, especially in Portugal, he has taken corners, free kicks and penalties. In fact, last year, at Famaliçao in the Portuguese First Division, he scored two goals this way. He scored, in total, five and gave seven assists.
As for his musts, he is not an excessively fast footballer and, in addition, it is difficult for him to peek into the areas close to the rival area. In his country of origin he has been able to have good numbers in this aspect, but outside of it he has not had continuity.
A promise from Portugal
Pêpê, international in all the lower categories of his team, with 78 appearances, arrived at Benfica at just twelve years old. The footballer from Satao was very prominent in the affiliate of the eagles since 2015, when he debuted. He played a total of 53 games, with six goals in the following two seasons.
He then left on loan to Estoril in 2017. There he made his debut in the Portuguese First Division in a match against Sporting Club that his team lost 2-1. At only twenty years old, he already had an important role, playing a total of 22 games.
The following year Benfica loaned him out again, in this case to Vitoria Guimaraes. In the vimaraenses he grew as a player in his debut campaign, which meant that they ended up signing him for five years. In the 2019-20 season he made his debut in the Europa League. He was even a starter in a match that his team drew (1-1) against Arsenal in Guimaraes.
His extraordinary development caught the attention of Olympiakos. The Greeks bet very heavily on him and, in the summer of 2020, they paid almost four million euros for his services and signed him a five-year contract. He even made his debut in the Champions League, where he played a total of three games. However, his lack of continuity forced him to leave on loan in the winter market, heading back to his native country, where he spent two more seasons.
In Famaliçao, his penultimate destination, he was the protagonist from the first moment. He played 50 games, missing just two games in his second campaign and managed to lead his team to eighth in the league with five goals and seven assists.
This past summer he did not find his place at Olympiakos and went on loan to the Turkish Ankaragücü. There he has played six league games and two cup games, with very little prominence. With his departure to Cartagena, Pêpê, father of two children, hopes to recover the lost continuity.
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