U-17 coach Carlos Amadeu provides an insight on why Brazil is a powerhouse of football; rues impact of globalisation on the South American nation
With five FIFA World Cup titles and as many as eight Copa America crowns in their kitty, Brazil’s success and dominance on the global stage cannot be debated. The country that boasts of nursing super stars like Pele, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and Neymar has produced the most top class footballers than any other nation..
Brazil players pose with the South American U-17 trophy at Chile in March this year. Pic/Getty Images
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To put things in perspective, Brazil is as big as India. According to a global census last year, the South American nation is the fifth most populated nation in the world. So what makes Brazil so brilliant at football and a country that has a so-called factory to churn world talent?
The success of a sport in any nation can be traced to the tenacity of its grassroots and who better to give an insight into the scene than Brazil under-17 head coach Carlos Amadeu, who is in the city with the junior Selecao to gear up for next month’s FIFA U-17 World Cup. “We have kids playing football in every region of Brazil. To identify talent, we have a staff of scouts who continuously try and find new players everyday. We have 20 to 25 clubs with their own academy of developing players. We work in sync with these teams,” Amadeu, who was appointed gaffer for the junior colts in May 2015, said yesterday.
The scouting is in good stead but it goes a notch higher when it comes to donning the yellow and green jersey. Besides the selected ones earlier, another recruitment rally is held. “When the nation calls, for example when we have to form the U-15 team, we establish a pool of 60 to 80 players. These players are chosen from local areas (favelas). When we move to the U-17 and U-20, this pool becomes 40 or 30,” he added.
Another positive for Brazil is that they ensure the same brand of fast play is prevalent across the country, even in the 25 clubs. “We work in partnership with coaches from the clubs and some of them work with us in the national team. When they go back to their clubs they talk about the same philosophy that we follow in the national camp and that helps us,” he said.
However, even in Brazil’s impeccable selection procedure, there seems to be a flaw. Globalisation has had its impact on the country’s football scene. “Our players started to move out of Brazil. They used to leave the country when they were 26 or 27, but now they leave when they are just 16 or 17. Sometimes we’re surprised when we find a player who never appeared in a youth tournament, would suddenly appear in another country. We need to have more scouts. Besides that, we are also trying to produce better competitions so that these stars can display their skills when they’re young and in Brazil only,” he said.
While the talk of players leaving the country took centre-stage, Amadeu weighed in on the country versus club debate. Currently, a player from every country would sweat it out for his club rather than the nation. It is an issue across the globe, but Amadeu, 53, sees it beneficial to the player. “The difficult part is to train together and develop as a team because when young players are playing for clubs like Real Madrid or Barcelona, they don’t allow us to use them outside FIFA dates. But when they live in other countries, they experience another culture, school of football and style of training. This helps them to develop their football,” he said.
Watch out then for these selected Samba boys. With so much scrutiny and exposure, this U-17 World Cup maybe the moment of truth for them all.
Brazil’s U-17 World Cup schedule
October 7 – Brazil v Spain
October 10- Korea DPR v Brazil
October 13- Niger v Brazil
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