Goalkeeper Bruno Fernandes de Souza has been handed a two-year contract by Brazilian club Boa Esporte. This would have been just another piece of transfer news had the goalkeeper in question not done something truly despicable in the past.
‘Bruno’ was recently released from prison after serving seven years of a 22-year sentence following the 2010 murder of his then girlfriend, Eliza Samudio, who he met at a footballers’ party in 2009, and with whom he had a son. Bruno was the main suspect in her murder.
He was then playing and captaining Flamengo and is believed to have been on top of his game, with many touting he was destined for greener pastures.
He is thought to have wanted Eliza dead to stop paying child support. The goalkeeper had apparently demanded that Samudio should have an abortion, but she didn’t do the same and had the child. In 2009, she filed two lawsuits against Bruno – one to make him recognise the paternity of her child, and another for assault. She claimed that Bruno and two other men forced her to take abortion pills.
It has been alleged that Luis Santos, a former military policeman, committed ‘barbaric tortures’ on Samudio and was paid £8,000 by Bruno to murder her. According to Edson Moreira, a detective who investigated the case, ‘His acts were almost impossible to describe without breaking down – images from the worst nightmare you could imagine.’
Bruno was convicted of kidnapping and was sentenced to 22 years and three months for the murder and the disposal of the body. The model’s body was never found, but it was claimed to the court that she was strangled and fed to the player’s Rottweiler dogs. In 2013, Bruno admitted knowing Samudio had been strangled and her remains had been fed to rottweilers, but denied ordering the killing.
Bruno was released from prison Apac de Santa Luzia on February 24.
He was a talented goalkeeper, and before his arrest, he had been linked with a hefty transfer to AC Milan. He was tipped to play for Brazil at the 2014 World Cup, had also previously been linked with a move to Barcelona after showing potential at Corinthians and Flamengo.
However, all that went out of the window the day he decided to take the life of someone else. He was rightly put in jail for his despicable actions but having just served less than one-third of his sentence; his life is allowed to resume to normalcy? He genuinely has a shot at donning the national team’s jersey again? At 32, he’s just reaching his prime and did train in jail.
There has rightly been an uproar in the country, especially considering the rate of domestic violence against women. One of the Boa Esporte’s main sponsors, Nutrends Nutrition, has ended its deal with the club. Numerous fans are declaring they will end their support for the club if Bruno is allowed to partake in football again.
Meanwhile, the club’s president, Rone Moraes da Costa, believes his club are doing a “positive thing” by trying to restore a person back in society by giving him work.
Since his release, a video has been released that sees Bruno celebrating with family and friends after getting out of prison, smiling at cameras, doing thumbs-up. It doesn’t look like he is a dejected person who needs society’s validation of coming back to work. He seems pretty chuffed with himself.
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