Perhaps, if right now we organize a survey among experts and fans who are closely following the ups and downs of the 2024/25 season in the Ukrainian Premier League, on the best player, then in the top 5 there will definitely be a place for a short, but extremely technical, speedy and -to the football smart winger of “Alexandria” Juan Alvina Bezerra.
This Brazilian really literally made many fans of domestic football fall in love with him with his play, demonstrating not just a brilliant game with a huge amount of useful work, but also doing all this solely in the interests of the team. Bezerra practically does not play with the ball, clearly understands where, to whom and when it needs to be passed, and also “twists the vertebrae” of his opponents, even Shakhtar’s defenders, who faced in the Champions League and not such masters, with considerable tenacity and constancy .
And also: Juan Alvina Bezerra already has 3 goals scored and 4 assists in 12 matches in the 2024/25 UPL, and many reasonably believe that the Brazilian winger is literally tearing our league apart right now. Well, this is a great opportunity to talk about one of the leaders of Alexandria in a little more detail…
He shone among the youth, unexpectedly leaving his home club for free
Juan Alvina Bezerra was born in Rio de Janeiro on February 16, 2003. It is known that at least from the age of 16 this football player was in the Vasco da Gama academy and in this club he managed to make a name for himself quite loudly at the youth level. In Brazilian sources you can find information that Bezerra took part in the victories of “Giant Colina” (one of the popular nicknames of “Vasco”) in the Brazilian Cup and Super Cup U-20 in 2020, but what can be said for sure is that he played a key role in these successes Juan Alvina did not play.
But where Bezerra managed to shine was in the Carioca League U-20 in 2023. The final of this tournament took place in July 2023, and there the youth team of Vasco da Gama managed to beat their peers from Flamengo in two matches (2:1, 0:1, 5:4 on penalties). And even though Juan Alvina Bezerra did not score in the decisive matches, he managed to win the title of top scorer of that tournament, scoring 10 (according to some information 9, but this does not call into question the championship in the scoring race) goals scored.
At the beginning of 2023, Bezerra was given the opportunity to play two matches for the first team of Vasco da Gama in the Carioca League, but in general the winger was considered not yet ready for such performances and, obviously, they expected to gradually bring him to the main team. A high-quality game in the Carioca League U-20 should have increased Bezerra’s chances of gaining a foothold in the first team of Vasco da Gama, but then a surprise happened – the footballer decided to move to Ukraine, where Alexandria invited him, and to sign the legionnaire to a representative of the domestic Premier League. league succeeded as a free agent.
He quickly got used to the UPL, where he could have ended up earlier in another team
In general, Juan Alvina Bezerra got used to the Ukrainian Premier League quite quickly. Last season, Alexandria coach Ruslan Rotan, which we can safely say now – after the passage of time, gained the “bumps” that are so necessary for any young specialist, in order to then draw conclusions and try to improve the game of his team. In these kind of experiments by Rotan, there was also a place for Bezerra, who played 13 matches, scoring 3 goals and 4 assists, and it took the Brazilian only 415 minutes to do everything, that is, for one effective action Juan Alvina needed less than an hour of pure playing time , if we take it on average.
It is not surprising that the updated and much more pragmatic Alexandria entered the 2024/25 season with Bezerra as one of the key performers. After what happened in the previous championship, Rotan’s team changed their style and moved away from the desire to control the ball at all costs, even if this increases the risk of getting a final negative result. Obviously, this was a balanced decision on the part of the head coach, who selected exactly the right circle of performers who are capable of acting in the right way.
It’s interesting that, if you trust rumors, Juan Alvina Bezerra could have ended up in the Ukrainian Premier League much earlier. Dnepr-1 was interested in his services, and the Brazilian’s transfer was planned for the winter transfer window of the 2021/22 season. More precisely, on February 24, 2022, Bezerra had an air ticket to Europe; the footballer was never able to fly there because of the start of a full-scale invasion of Russian occupiers…
Became the one whom Rotan sets as an example to others
Considering the fact that Alexandria does not have many foreign players, and the Brazilians themselves are often quite frivolous about the need to constantly focus on football as a job, and not as a way to enjoy life, many believed that Bezerra’s bright streak in the 2023/24 season will turn out to be nothing more than a pleasant coincidence, and will not receive proper development in the future.
But that’s not what happened at all. Ruslan Rotan and his assistants did a tremendous job with the Brazilian, and from now on Bezerra is the player whom the Alexandria head coach cites as an example to others, especially highlighting his willingness to change his own views and, to some extent, even mentality.
“I want to give an example with our player Bezerra. We had a great time with him. This player came to us – a young promising Brazilian – and he integrated into our understanding very well. I would especially like to note the mentality. Juan changed his mentality closer to our game, to our team. He realized that the Ukrainian championship is very difficult, he realized that in the UPL there are a lot of one-on-one games. He improves himself, works in training, listens carefully in theories.”
“And we need to talk about this. When such a foreign player arrives, you can work with him when he has a very strong desire to progress, when he wants it. After all, what do we see in the majority? When a foreign player arrives, he, let’s say, sees himself in the first team, he believes that he must play. The problem for managers and coaches is that they need to find players with a different mentality – ready to compete if they come here. Because you can’t build a team around a foreign player so that the management sets the task of selling the player. No, first of all, this is a team. A team is built that provides results, and only then the player grows, and he can be sold to a better club,” Rotan emphasized.
Could already bring good profit to Alexandria
Interestingly, again at the level of rumors, but Juan Alvina Bezerra could already bring good profit to Alexandria. Literally at the end of the 2024 summer transfer window, the Ukrainian club received an offer from the Saudi Arabian Al-Ahly for the Brazilian winger. The representative of the Middle East wanted to buy Bezerra for $1.5 million, but Alexandria bosses refused, although formally this amount was three times the estimated value of the foreign player on the Transfermarkt portal.
Speaking of Transfermarkt. Right now, Bezerra’s contract there is valued at 500 thousand euros, and the last “revaluation” occurred on September 12, when Juan Alvina went up from 200 thousand to the current half a million. Despite this, the Brazilian is not at all the most expensive player of Alexandria, but is included, along with many other team players, in the top 3, occupying the “bronze” position along with eight other performers, whose contracts are also valued by experts at 500 thousand euros.
But the most valuable football player of the current Alexandria, according to Transfermarkt, is Bezerra’s direct competitor in position – right winger Artem Kozak, who came to the Rotan team this summer as a free agent from Polesye. His contract is valued at 800 thousand euros, but so far Kozak is losing competition to the Brazilian, and appears on the field quite infrequently, and does not have a clear position, acting both on the right flank of the attack and in its central zone.
Received recognition from CIES analysts who even compare him to the Real Madrid star
Most likely, Juan Alvina Bezerra got on the Saudis’ radar not because of his outstanding performances in the Ukrainian Premier League. The fact is that back in mid-August, the Brazilian unexpectedly came to the attention of analysts from the International Center for Sports Studies (CIES), which presented a list of five football players under the age of 25 with a similar playing profile to Real Madrid star winger 23-year-old Rodrigo , the estimated value of which today exceeds 100 million euros.
CIES placed Bezerra in fifth place in the cohort of performers who could be called the “new Rodrigo.”
Closest U2⃣5⃣ profiles to #Rodrygo
🥇 #ZalanVancsa 🇭🇺
🥈 #ViktorDjukanovic 🇲🇪
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4⃣ #AyumuYokoyama 🇯🇵
5⃣ #JuanAlvina 🇧🇷
More exclusive stats 👉 pic.twitter.com/ijNNKwZpp4
— CIES Football Obs (@CIES_Football) August 17, 2024
If we compare the time frame when this rating appeared and when Alexandria received an offer for Bezerra from Al-Ahly, then in general everything coincides – first international analysts and experts started talking about the Brazilian from the UPL, after which they reacted to it quite quickly those who have money, but who learn to spend it with maximum rationality.
However, CIES did not stop at including Bezerra in the rating of “Rodrigo’s followers.” Already in October, the same organization presented its version of the best wingers in world football under the age of 23. The list included ten performers from leagues around the world, and Alexandria’s representative took a very prestigious seventh place with a rating score of 82.4, less than ten points behind the leader, Barcelona prodigy Lamin Yamal.
It’s clear that Bezerra can actually build a pretty impressive career if he doesn’t mentally stick to what he’s showing now and show no signs of complacency. Alexandria can also make a good deal on the Brazilian, which in theory is capable of bargaining for Bezerra significantly more than the $1.5 million that the Saudis have already offered for the winger. It’s true that a lot will depend on the professionalism of the “yellow-blacks” management, since Juan Alvina’s contract with the club runs until the summer of 2026. And this is only at first glance a significant period, because in fact already at the end of next year the Brazilian will be able to think about, and soon begin to conduct preliminary negotiations to leave the club as a free agent. And losing such a “diamond”, which Bezerra became for Alexandria, for free would not only be extremely negligent, but also simply unreasonable.
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