Stepping into the limelight as the replacement for squeaky-clean marquee striker Shinji Ono in the pre-season, the jury is out on the mercurial Brazilian, who is fast developing a cult following of his own in western Sydney.

The 23-year-old's first derby experience last month ended in drama when he was red carded for a rash challenge on Sydney FC's Terry Antonis, adding another layer of controversy to the man who divided opinion with his theatrical antics against Guangzhou in his first game for the Wanderers in August.

But the softly spoken Saba is not concerned by public perception.

"To be honest, I don't really care about what people think," Saba told Fairfax Media before Saturday night's grudge match at Pirtek Stadium.

"If I have to care about something it's my team and my coach. Look, each country is different. In Brazil, we have a culture, in Italy I got a culture punch. It was very different from what I was used to in Brazil. Then I came here and it's different again; it's like Brazil but it's not. Every time you move and you change countries there's a different culture."

Saba is not fussed by suggestions that Sydney FC might be out to provoke him, nor does he acknowledge the words that were uttered by the seething home fans as he trudged up the Allianz Stadium tunnel last month.

"There's no point talking about the red card because that game is in the past," Saba said. "It was a call he made and now I've moved on since the day after."

He knows all about the hostilities associated with a derby, experiencing it as both a junior player and fan for Flamengo in his home town of Rio de Janeiro.

He has witnessed brawls erupting in the stands and outside the ground and even heard about deaths that have occurred as a result of the century-long hostility between Flamengo and rivals Fluminense.

"Derby day is a big day back home," Saba said. "Since I was a kid I used to go to Maracana to see Flamengo. In Brazil, in South America, derby day is the most important day and it's an unbelievable atmosphere. The crowd is amazing, they come in big numbers and they make chants.

"The rivalry is big. Sometimes it's not good when you see fights happening between fans and people sometimes dying, but that's the thing that happens over there. It's not good but you can see the rivalry is big.

"The team I used to play for [Flamengo] is the most popular team in Brazil. At junior level it's the same. The fans come and it's always a big game. In South America that culture is a little bit more hotter."

The man who was nicknamed "The Beard" by Wanderers fans when he first signed with the club, has since shaved off his facial hair, making a deal with coach Tony Popovic that he would remove the beard after he played a bad game.

Ironically he shaved his beard after the Asian Champions League triumph, critical of his own performance in the club's finest hour.

He admitted the appeal of the Asian Champions League campaign drew him towards the Wanderers, and the appeal of another piece of silverware at the end of the season was now his driving force.

"It was a big factor of course; it wasn't the only factor, but it was a big factor," Saba said of the ACL.

"When I first chose to come here and I saw the opportunity to play in the quarter-final, I saw an opportunity. As I said in my first interview when I got here, I came here to win trophies and we've already got the first one. Now we want another one."