As Pula and Istria are preparing to react to the likely continuation of Istra 1961’s astonishing 29-matches strong non-winning streak this Sunday, August 14, 2016 against Slaven Belupo, news has reached us that the club is getting set to introduce fourth tier Brazil football playing, new coach Goran Tomić acquaintance, Mario Lucio as the man that’s going to help fight despair at the Aldo Drosina Stadium.
Diligent istrasport.eu reporter, Elvis Uravić googled and youtubed the new Great Brazilian Hope (so we don’t have to) today, August 9, 2016 and found out that offensive midfielder ML used to play for a Chinese second tier team from Tianjin and that he scored 23 goals in 64 matches in China, most of them during the time the current Istra 1961 coach Goran Tomić coached there. On Youtube, Elvis only found an, in his opinion, well-sounding Brazilian singer going by the same name.
The new Istra 1961 player seems to be of very optimistic nature as Elvis also found a statement Mario Lucio made in Brazilian press. He said that his former coach in China has put together a very strong team in Croatia with which he’s going to attempt to get into the Champions League(!!!). There is a slight chance that Google Translate didn’t do its job perfectly translating the statement from Portuguese to Croatian. If that’s not the case, Mario is in for a surprise.
It seems as if the only hope for Istra 1961 is that Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz decides to have himself a Red Bull football franchise (besides the ones in Salzburg, Austria; Leipzig, Germany and in New York) at the Adriatic coast and give Istra 1961 some wings. Mateschitz has been to Istria often, most lately in Rovinj this June. If he does decide to invest in Pula, fans have already agreed to switch from Malvasia wine and beer to Red Bull. Cheers.
