Who is Pedro? He's Barcelona's brilliant Mr Nobody



THE GAME IN SPAIN

By Pete Jenson for the Daily Mail

Last week when Fernando Torres handed in his transfer request it was suggested Liverpool could turn down Chelsea’s offer and auction off their prize asset at the end of the season to the highest bidder. Barcelona would surely be at the front of the queue, desperate to team Torres with David Villa and Leo Messi.

Torres would also do well to wait for a move to the Nou Camp, it was suggested. That way he would avoid upsetting Liverpool fans by moving to another English club. The fantasy football team-selection of Torres, Messi and Villa had the marketing men salivating. Nobody mentioned Pedro.

Back in 2004 nobody was mentioning Pedro either when Barcelona went on a spying mission to Tenerife to take one last look at a promising young winger by the name of Jeffren Suarez before signing him. Killing time in the city before heading home there was a chance meeting with a youth football coach and Barca contact on the Island who asked what he thought was an obvious question: ‘And you’ll be taking Pedro too?’ ‘Who is Pedro?’ came back the reply.

Seven years down the line and with a World Cup, a Champions League, a Spanish League, a Spanish Cup, a Spanish Super Cup, a European Super Cup and a World Club Cup winner’s medal in his locker the question remains the same – who is Pedro?

Pure class: Pedro has won almost every honour in the game, yet remains an unsung hero

When Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5-0 earlier in the season Cristiano Ronaldo clashed with Pep Guardiola and as Barcelona players rushed to defend their manager Pedro was on the scene as a peacemaker. The Portuguese was overheard looking down on the diminutive winger and sniping: ‘And you, who are you?’.

The original ‘Who is Pedro?’ question had the Barcelona scouts cancelling their flight out of Tenerife so they could watch the new target in action the following day. Barca still went through with the signing of Jeffren but they made sure they also secured the signature of Pedro Rodriguez before heading back home.

The son of a retired construction worker, who now works in a petrol station in Tenerife filling tanks while his son’s stellar performances play-out on the portable TV in the forecourt shop, Pedro now forms part of the world’s most formidable forward line.

He just edged out Fernando Torres in South Africa being picked ahead of him for both the semi-final and the final and it would be hard to see how El Nino could possibly have dethroned Barca’s brilliant Mr Nobody on the right hand-side of the club’s front three, if he had signed.

Villa, Messi and Pedro have scored 47 goals in the league between them – that’s one less than the entire Real Madrid squad put together. Pedro has scored 19 in his last 21 games. He is the world’s second most prolific scorer over the last 20 matches behind only Messi.

He has hit eight goals in his last six games scoring in each of those matches and if he nets against Atletico Madrid on Saturday night he will equal the great Johan Cruyff by scoring in seven straight games. Only Mariano Martin with nine and the Brazilian Ronaldo with 10 will be able to boast better scoring runs.

Only Messi has scored more goals for Barcelona since Pep Guardiola took over two-and-a-half seasons ago. Pedro is now ahead of Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o, stars of Barcelona’s first ‘Pep-season’ when the team hit 105 goals. If they can top that mark by three this season then they will beat Real Madrid’s all-time record of 107 goals in a season from the 1989-90 campaign.

Pedro has even crept into the Golden Boot top-25, level with Villarreal’s Giuseppe Rossi and Athletic Bilbao’s Fernando Llorente – who as Spurs found out during the transfer window are both rated in excess of £30million.

‘If Pedro was Brazilian the club would be struggling to find the money to sign him’ says coach Pep Guardiola who has never had any doubts about Barcelona’s number 17.



Doubling up: Holland's Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Dirk Kuyt pay close attention to Pedro in the World CUp final

At the start of Guardiola’s second season in charge Wigan Athletic were among a clutch of clubs, including Zaragoza and Olympiakos ready to take him on loan but Guardiola told his President ‘nobody touches him – he stays here’.

And although the season began with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henry partnering Messi it ended with Pedro ahead of both the big stars in the first team shooting his way into Vicente del Bosque’s World Cup plans.

He came on as a substitute in the quarter-final win over Paraguay and was then picked to start ahead of Fernando Torres in the semi-final. He was guilty of not playing-in Torres for what would have been a late nerve-calming second goal against Germany, going alone instead and being dispossessed by Arne Friedrich. But he calmly rode out the storm claiming he simply never heard the call. That miss aside, he had been outstanding and he kept his place for the final.

As things stand Barcelona could not have afforded £50m outlay on someone whose signing would force them to leave out a player who scored in every competition he played in during his first full year in the first team (six different tournaments in 2009) and who will equal Cruyff on Saturday if he bags goal number 20 of the season.

Who is Pedro? He’s the player you just can’t leave out.

Cristiano Ronaldo lacks humility according to Osasuna’s Uruguayan striker Walter Pandiani.

The two clashed in Real Madrid’s 1-0 defeat in La Liga and the former Espanyol, Deportivo, Mallorca and Birmingham City striker said Ronaldo could learn a thing or two from Messi.



We were all with him up until that point, until he added: 'When he has won the cups in Spain that I have then he can talk.'



With three King’s Cups and two SuperCups, Pandiani has a decent trophy haul but maybe when he has won four league titles, a Champions League and a Ballon D’Or he can seriously think about taking Ronaldo on in a ‘put your medals on the table’ competition.

The eye of the storm: Walter Pandiani and Cristiano Ronaldo exchange pleasantries at the Reyno de Navarra