PLAYER PROFILE

Da Silva Eduardo

Position: Forward

Height: 5'9

Weight: 11st 0lbs

Date of Birth: 1983-02-25 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Da Silva Eduardo

Arsenal signed Croatia international striker Eduardo da Silva from Dinamo Zagreb in July 2007.

The 24-year-old put pen to paper on a four-year contract to fill the void created by former captain Thierry Henry's £16million departure to Barcelona the previous month.

The Brazilian-born forward moved to Europe at the age of 15 and took Croatian nationality in 2002.

Eduardo has netted seven times in 12 international appearances - including one of the goals in Croatia's 2-0 Euro 2008 qualifying victory over England in Zagreb last October.

He also scored the first competitive goal at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium when the Gunners defeated Dinamo 5-1 on aggregate in August 2006 during the qualifying rounds for last season's Champions League.

He made a promising start to life at Arsenal in the 2007/08 season, but it was cut cruelly short in February 2008 when he was fouled by Birmingham City's Martin Taylor and suffered a horrendous injury, leaving him with a broken ankle and broken shin. This ruled him out of the rest of the campaign and Croatia's Euro 2008 campaign.

His long road to recovery finally ended in February 2009 when he made his first start in an FA Cup clash with Cardiff City and it was a triumphant return as he scored twice.