MELBOURNE Heart has added further Samba flair to its front half by announcing it has signed Brazilian Maycon Carvalho Inez on a one-year deal.

The 24-year-old striker comes to Heart from Brazilian club Nova Iguacu and joins countrymen Alex Terra and former Melbourne Victory star Fred, who is expected to arrive early next month.



Heart coach John van't Schip said Terra's promising form last season had encouraged his recruitment of Maycon.



"Of course the contact that I then had with people in Brazil also helped - that you can trust what they think and what they say about the person," van't Schip said.



"Everything they said about Alex was true. The only thing with Alex, and he is the first one to say, is that he was injured too much.



"So that's why we looked, with Maycon, that he had a fit track record.



"After the first screening we had here, people have already said that he's looking sharp, looking good.



"We're happy with him."



Having added Fred, Mate Dugandzic (from Victory) and David Williams (North Queensland Fury) during the off-season, Heart fans could be forgiven for expecting an attack-based approach to the season.



"I think the vision we have is going to stay the same," van't Schip said.



"I think we have a lot of mobility inside with Mate Dugandzic, David Williams, Rutger Worm and also with Alex, Maycon, Eli (Babalj), Jason (Hoffman) - they're all players who move very easily.



"Hopefully we can manage to create something good. And of course Fred coming in is a big thing for us."



As he shivered his way through his first Melbourne press conference, Maycon said the weather would take some getting used to, but he felt the move would help his career.



"I watched a few matches and the style of football is very similar to mine," he said through an interpreter.



"So I had a chat with my family and I decided it was important for me to leave Brazil to play abroad and Australia seemed like a great place to go."

Originally published as Samba flair taken to Heart