The Brazilian forward of New York Red Bulls, only 22 years old, Elias Manoel, is entering his third season in Major League Soccer and had a chat with Território MLS about his plans for the upcoming season.
In 2023, Elias had a significant role in the team and helped New York Red Bulls in a campaign that led the team to the playoffs. With seven goals and three assists in 37 games. In 2022, there were only 7 games, but he contributed with two goals and one assist.
Elias spoke with Território MLS and talked about his expectations for the next season, the confrontation against Luis Suarez, and his arrival at the MLS club.
– What are your expectations for the 2024 season? Both personally and collectively?
I think every player, when you talk about expectations for the year, always plans for the best, but during the season, there are diversities that end up falling a bit behind the player’s expectation.
But I hope to score many goals this season, that we can reach these competitions that will take place during this year, important competitions, now with different perspectives for them, so I think that’s it, I think the expectation is very high for us to win a championship, despite having other very qualified teams, but we are working hard to achieve it.
– You had a good season in 2023 and ended on a high note, do you already feel adapted to MLS and New York Red Bulls?
Yes, over time I think the player adapts very well, I am already very well adapted here, it already seems that I have been here since I was a child, so I already know everything, so that’s good, you feel better, you feel lighter to do what you like to do, which is playing football, and it’s very good to have people by your side supporting you to go further.
– You received a great teammate for the next season, which is the Swedish Emil Forsberg, how has it been living with him?
Emil is a very different player, it’s very good to have a player like him on our team, a player who has European experience, in training here, when he passes, he takes a shot, we see that the guy is different, so I am very happy with his arrival, he is a guy who will help us a lot, put a lot in front of the goal, and now we will focus on scoring those goals and making it an incredible year.
– How has it been to play in a club that values young players a lot, like New York Red Bulls?
This Red Bull project is very cool, both the project itself, but it’s very cool to see here the player who is here going to Salzburg or Leipzig. It’s very cool the way they value the player within the franchise. That’s cool. I think the Red Bull project is very, very cool.
– You will face Luis Suarez, the new reinforcement of Inter Miami who was at Grêmio. What do you expect from this confrontation?
Yeah, the game against Inter Miami, everyone knows it won’t be an easy game because they have great players. Yeah, you prepare very well for this match and it will be very good, right? You can meet world-renowned stars, guys you… I just played with them in video games, I only read about them on TV, it will be very good. It will be a dream to see them up close.
