September
September’s player of the month is veteran play maker Phil Coutinho of Vasco da Gama
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If you know your football it’s likely that you have come across the name Phil Coutinho at some stage. At one point he was thought of as one of the best players in Europe and has graced some of the most iconic stadiums in world football, as well as wearing some of the most famous shirts there is to wear in the sport, Liverpool and Barcalona to name but two.
Since July of last year however Couthinho has found himself back where it all started, in Rio and more specifically, Vasco da Gama. Coutinho came through the ranks at Vasco back in 2009, having played a handful of games, in Serie B, Vasco were promoted to Serie A for the 2010 edition of the league and Coutinho would then get his first taste of top flight football. He had already signed for Italian Serie A giants Inter Milan but could not move to Europe until he was eighteen. In the meantime at the age of just seventeen, Coutinho had become a first team regular in his home town team.
Most Premier League watches will likely remember him best turning out in the red of Liverpool. The former Brazilian international amassed just over 200 appearances for the Merseyside club before departing for Spain and Barcalona in the winter of 2018.
After four years in Spain (and mixed in a loan move to Bayern Munchen for a season) Coutinho, now twenty-nine, turned up once again in the Premier League, this time for Aston Villa, then managed by his old Liverpool team mate Steven Gerrard. Coutinho would go on to play just forty-five times in the eighteen months he was back in England before spending a season on loan in Qatar.
He finally returned home to Vasco in the summer of 2024, firstly on loan but made the move permanent in July of this year.
During the month of September, Coutinhio scored three times and assisted one goal as his team went unbeaten throughout the month.
One goal in particular stands out – a trademark free kick from the left hand side squeezed in at the near post against Bahia.
Coutinhio may not be playing in front of the world anymore but his form in September shows that he can still hit the heights that made him a household name in European football, and whats more, what better place to do it then wearing the colours of your home town team.
Talking Brazil Ball 