Eduardo has revealed the details behind his move to , including that he turned down the chance to inherit the No.14 shirt from .
The now retired Croatian international was speaking exclusively to at their launch of the 5-A-Side bet on Crystal Palace v Arsenal and spoke of his shock at being offered a transfer to a Premier League club, saying: ‘My move to Arsenal, if I’m being honest, I thought was a joke from my agent.
‘I knew I’d had a good season for my club [Dinamo Zagreb] and country, and I was aware of the interest in me from around Europe – but I was also very aware of the standard I was playing at.
‘There’s a big difference between that and the Premier League. A more common route to those top clubs like Arsenal would be via a club in France or Italy.’
Regardless of where he was playing, 73 goals in 109 league games were impossible to ignore for and Eduardo moved to the Emirates in 2007 for £12.15m.
‘My agent always like to mess around with me, so you never knew whether or not to believe what he was saying,’ the former forward added.
‘And one day he tells me Arsenal are interested in you and I had 24 hours to prepare to fly out to London for a medical. It all happened just like that – and he wasn’t kidding.
‘A representative from Arsenal took me [from the airport] to the training ground. I’m sat in the car, when this guy gets a phone call. He gives me his phone and I had no idea who was on the other end of it… this guy was Arsene Wenger. I couldn’t believe it; it didn’t sink in that I’d obviously end up talking to him.’
Sadly, things did not work out for Eduardo in north London after the Croatian broke his leg while playing against Birmingham City in February 2008 and despite bagging a brace on his return to action a year later, he was never the same player again, eventually leaving Arsenal in 2010 for Shakhtar Donetsk before hanging up his boots in 2018.
Still, an impressive strike rate of 21 goals in just 67 appearances made him a fan-favourite, and while he did not prove to be the heir to Henry, Eduardo very nearly took the Arsenal legend’s shirt number.
During that first phone call, he recalled: ‘All of a sudden, he [Wenger] asks me which number I’d like: “Number nine or number 14?”
‘Henry has just left the club, maybe two weeks ago to go to Barcelona. One of the best strikers that’s ever played in the Premier League. You think I want the pressure of that number on my back?!
‘I wanted number 22 because that was my number for Croatia, but Gael Clichy had taken it, so that was it; I was Arsenal’s new number nine!
‘If I’d have taken that number 14 shirt, you can imagine the comparisons straight away – people would’ve thought I was coming in to directly replace Thierry. And that was of course my plan in the long-term, but through hard work and proving myself to my teammates and my supporters… not by coming in and taking his shirt right away!’
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