Eder: Inter move an 'enormous opportunity'

As of approximately 15:03 local time on Friday, Éder is officially an Inter player, having signed from Sampdoria in a complex deal that will ultimately be worth around €13m. There has been little time for the Italo-Brazilian to get used to life in his new surroundings yet though, because within two hours of the official announcement came his official presentation press conference at Appiano Gentile.

During it, he demonstrated the kind of humility and determination that has enabled him to finally attract the attention of one of Europe's biggest clubs after a modest first half of his career, and that should also enable him to win over those Interisti who aren't particularly convinced by his signing.

"Joining Inter at 29 years of age indicates that I've put in a lot of hard work to make it here. I've been in Italy for 11 years now and Inter have won quite a lot since then, so I already know a bit about the story of this club and I know the responsibility I have now. This is an enormous opportunity for me, and I thank Erick Thohir, Piero Ausilio for giving me that opportunity. They always made it clear that they really wanted me, not just the manager Roberto Mancini."

There had been rumours late in the day that Claudio Ranieri's Leicester were interested in signing the striker, but Eder was clear about where his priorities lie: "Leicester were interested in me as well, but it was very important when I heard of a club like Inter's interest. I know the importance of this club and its shirt, so to be given the chance to stay in Italy here was a lovely thing. There was a bit of interest from Inter in August, but in the end the deal didn't conclude itself - I'm just happy to be here now."

When asked about the responsibility of bringing goals to what has been a very goal-shy attack this season, his response was encouraging: "Goals are important for all attackers, but my way of playing involves sacrificing myself a lot for the team and that's what really counts. If you look at someone like Jose Callejon at Napoli, he's only scored one goal [in the league] this season and yet they're top of the table. It doesn't matter who scores - the main objective is always the victory of the team. It's true that Inter haven't scored as many as some of the other teams, but they've also not conceded many which tells you that this team works very well."

"As for which system I work best in, that's for the coach to decide. At Samp I played in lots of different roles, so it won't be a problem. There are a lot of attackers here who are doing well - the strength of a big team is to have every player ready at all times, and that when they play they give their all."

Following the press conference, Eder then gave a brief interview with the club's in-house TV channel, where again he demonstrated that he is not taking this career move for granted: "Every time that I go onto the pitch I always give 100%, which is the minimum we can do. I've received a lot of nice messages on social media in the past few days and it's been very nice to see; I'm very proud to have been given the chance to wear a shirt as important as this after so many years of hard work and sacrifice."

Finally, after expressing his admiration for former Inter players such as Ronaldo, he spared a word for this Sunday's upcoming derby: "It's not important if I score, if Mauro Icardi scores or if someone else does. The important thing is that someone puts the ball in and we win!"

And I'm sure we'll all agree with that, although it is about time Icardi scored a goal in the derby. Welcome aboard, Eder!