English League Cup final: Alex Bellostalks to Brazilian striker Julio Baptista, one of the leading lights of Arsenal's League Cup team, who hopes a good display at the Millennium Stadium will help make him a first-team regular
When Julio Baptista scored four goals against Liverpool in the League Cup at Anfield last month he celebrated by going to watch the Abba musical Mamma Mia! with his Spanish girlfriend.
Unlike Jose Antonio Reyes, who last summer swapped places with Baptista in a one-year loan deal which saw the Spaniard arrive at Real Madrid and claim that "London is shut at 5pm, there is nothing to do, nowhere to go", the Brazilian is loving life in the English capital and rather than live close to Arsenal's training ground he chose, like his team-mates Fredrik Ljungberg and Thierry Henry, to live in Hampstead. "I like the theatre, I like going out to restaurants, I love London," he says. "There is tons of stuff to do."
One thing he has not been doing as much of as he might have hoped is playing for the Arsenal first team, however. Although he has become a regular in the League Cup side he has featured in 18 games, the majority from the bench, in the other competitions.
"Of course it is frustrating," he says. "But I am competing with international players in every position and, when I arrived, the team was pretty much already formed."
He also found the process of adaptation to London slower. He lived in a hotel for the first two months and began to enjoy his time properly only when he moved into his Hampstead flat. Yet, Baptista feels that his performances are improving and that tomorrow's final is the best chance yet to prove that he is worth a regular place in the side.
"I'm playing well again," he says. "And look, I haven't been playing that much at all. This is the stage in the season when things get important. And now the going gets serious I am hitting my best form."
It all took a turn for the better at Anfield in that 6-3 quarter-final victory. The match ball was signed by his team-mates that night and now has pride of place on a bookshelf.
"That was a very significant, very important moment for me. You hardly ever see players scoring four goals. It really helped my confidence. If you come here and don't show the fans that you are as good as you were there, the people won't respect you. You need to start doing the business and so, in terms of earning respect, those four goals for me were crucial."
It was not the first time Baptista has scored four in a game - he did so once for Sevilla against Racing Santander and during his time at the Andalucian club he scored 38 in two seasons which culminated in his high-profile €20 million transfer to Real Madrid in 2005.
There had been a suggestion that he would have signed for Arsenal, but he chose to stay in Spain to gain a passport.
Like his new team-mate Denilson, Baptista started off at Sao Paulo in Brazil. Initially he was a defensive midfielder and only after transferring to Seville did he move to his favoured position - a free-roaming forward who plays about five yards behind the main striker.
Despite arriving at Real Madrid with a reputation as the latest glamorous Brazilian, "the Beast" failed to establish himself and he views his season there as a disappointment. He blames it on the change of management from his compatriot Vanderlei Luxembourgo to Juan Ramon Lopez Caro and the pressure of not having won the league for three seasons.
Yet, even though he is now glad to be at a club which is a benchmark for stability, the troubles at Real still affect him and Baptista is unclear whether the exchange involving Reyes will turn into a permanent thing.
"It's all quite complicated and I'm not trying to get involved at all, but my agent is coming here in the next month and will begin all the negotiations."
Baptista is one of three Brazilians at Arsenal, all of whom played together for the first time in last week's 3-1 win at Bolton in an FA Cup fourth-round replay. And even though he does not socialise much with his compatriots, he praises Gilberto for having been incredibly important in helping him adapt to the club.
As for Denilson, who turned 19 last week, Baptista describes him as the League Cup side's revelation this season. "I have been impressed with his strength of character," he says. "I wasn't expecting him to have shone so much already."
Most Brazilian players go out with Brazilians, moreover, so Baptista's choice to live with a Spaniard shows he is not afraid to be different. More predictably his mother lives with him in Hampstead; less so he is a keen golfer, although his one round in the country so far, with the training-ground chef and physiotherapist, was curtailed by bad light.
Baptista was described by Arsene Wenger on his arrival at the Emirates Stadium as versatile and has been used in several positions. Does he feel that this adaptability is a weakness in helping him try to establish a firm place in the team? "Not really because my best position is a second striker," he replies. "Arsene Wenger knows that's my best position, but sometimes the situation arises that I am needed in other positions and I'll play there."
At 25 he is one of the oldest members of Arsenal's League Cup side and he feels this gives him extra responsibility - and his size too makes him look like one of the dominant figures on the pitch.
Baptista has a positive attitude towards tomorrow's game - his first cup final in Europe. He is not sure that Chelsea will miss John Terry either, but instead focuses on the Arsenal team spirit. "If you have gone this far already in the competition you have got to have the self-confidence and belief to go just go for it."
If Baptista is looking for another musical with which to celebrate appropriately tomorrow, he will presumably hope to do better than a performance - in Cardiff, at least - of Les Miserables.
Guardian Service
