The Future of Brazil
Brazil’s performance at the Under-17 and Under-20 World Cups this year, where they finished respectively in third place and as winners, as well as the presence of some exciting young players in the Copa América squad gave us a glimpse of the future of the national team.
The current young generation looks far more promising than the team that finished in second place in the 2009 Under-20 World Cup, which included the likes of centre-back Rafael Tolói, midfielder Giuliano and forward Alan Kardec, all of which look far at the moment from having a chance at the senior national team.
Alan Kardec is a sort of new Jardel, but never impressed at senior football and is likely to never get called up. Giuliano is the most talented player of that generation and could fight for a place in a the national team in the future, but his move to Ukraine is likely to hinder his chances; a return to Brazil or a move to a Western European league could place him in the spotlight again.
Rafael Tolói is one of the best players at Goiás, but his team currently play in Brazil’s Série B, so a move should perhaps be considered – São Paulo are among the teams interested in signing him – in order to improve his reputation and gain more recognition.
A feature of the current generation is that there are plenty of talented attacking players but few of them are strikers and there are few promising defensive players.
Indeed, there are so many promising attacking options, ranging from Adryan in the Under-17s to Paulo Henrique Ganso in the senior national team, that most of them would need to be benched in a hypothetical future Brazilian national team.
At the back
A future national team would have to include defensive players though, and Gabriel from Cruzeiro would likely be the starting goalkeeper. He shined in the U20s due to his good height and talent to save penalties.
Flamengo’s youth goalkeeper César could be an alternate option. He was in Brazil’s U-20 World Cup squad and, like Gabriel, has a talent for saving penalties. He gained profile earlier this year after shining in the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior, the most important youth tournament in Brazil.
At attacking full-back Brazil will be well-covered. Both are likely to come from the Santos team that recently won Copa Libertadores, Danilo on the right side and Alex Sandro on the left-side. Both, especially Danilo, have shined at club level, and both have been sold to Porto already. Danilo is also an option in midfield, where he actually prefers to play.
The centre-backs are a problem as none of the younger ones really stand out, but 23-year old Dedé from Vasco is already one of the best defenders in Brazil and has been called up a couple of times for Brazil. He is a tall and strong defender, and also somewhat fast. He could play along with Mário Fernandes from Grêmio, who is a more technical player.
In midfield..
São Paulo’s Wellington would likely be the more fixed defensive midfielder, who would fill a role similar to that of Gilberto Silva. He is not as tall and strong as the former Arsenal player, but marks well and is also a fast player. He could, if necessary, also be fielded as a “segundo volante”.
The “segundo volante” role, which is similar to but more defensive than the box-to-box role, would likely be filled by Casemiro, whose marking abilities are not as good as those of Wellington, but who has shown talent to support the attacking players and even score the occasional goals through headers.
The attacking midfielders would naturally be Ganso and Lucas Moura. Ganso is a more classic kind of player, slow and with great vision and passing skills, while Lucas Moura is a faster and more direct kind of player.
There will be plenty of other options available besides them, such as Oscar, who was arguably the best Brazilian player in the Under 20 World Cup. Oscar has good technical and passing skills, but is a more direct player than Ganso.
Adryan, one of the stars in the Under 17 World Cup, could be another option. The Flamengo player has similar good technique and can also take free kicks with lethal accuracy.
Philippe Coutinho is another name likely to be mentioned as a potential star, but while he is technically as good as other midfielders and is also pretty fast, his performances declined in the latter rounds of the recent Under 20 World Cup, which might be an indication his future will not be as brilliant as often tipped to be.
But upfront?
As with at senior level, there is a lack of quality young strikers in Brazil right now. Internacional’s Leandro Damião is however certainly an exception in this regard – tall, strong, very good at heading and pretty composed too.
Henrique could be another option, but unlike Leandro Damião, he has shown little at senior level, despite having been part of Vitória’s squad last year. He did shine in the recent Under 20 World Cup though, even winning the Golden Ball Award and topping the goalscoring list, and has been a prolific striker at youth football since the U-15s.
His partner upfront would naturally be Neymar, who is already a Santos and national team star; fast, extremely skillful, and can also score goals. His diving and off-field attitude are often seen as problems, but he has shown in more than one occasion that he can learn from his mistakes.
Thus, a future Brazilian national team manager will have many talented players at his disposal. He might however have trouble finding the right balance, as Brazil possess so much more quality among the attacking players than among the defensive ones.
(photo credit: luizfilipe on Flickr)
Brazil, Brazilian Football, Football in Latin America, Youth FootballShare This Post!
About Paulo Freitas
Paulo is the Brazilian Head Researcher for Sports Interactive famous game Football Manager, has an extensive and respected knowledge of all levels of the Brazilian game, helped cover Brazil for Just Football during the World Cup. Paulo Freitas can also be found on twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Cynegeticus
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“Thus, a future Brazilian national team manager will have many talented players at his disposal.”
Hehe. I take it you don’t expect that to be Mano then eh Paulo?
Very nice write-up.
Yes, I don’t, he will leave after the 2014 World Cup anyway regardless of the outcome, but chances are he will leave before the World Cup even starts…
Not considering the versatile twins- Rafael and Fabio???
Rafael especially could certainly be an option but the article was focused more on players that played in the U20 and U17 World Cups or have been called up lately.
Danilo looks ahead of him at the moment though, and has been called up for Brazil’s match vs Ghana.
But as any list regarding Brazilian players there will always be players that could have been included in the list.
good acticle, regarding the centre backs dont you thik juan and bruno uvini are good enough? also what about lucas piazon of sao paulo (soon the be chelsea)? willian and douglas are also good players but they play in ukraine aswell.
I think Juan is a bit too violent and hasn’t as much as the other two mentioned in the article.
Bruno Uvini has the same problem, needs to prove he can establish himself more at club level,I like him though.
And the Ukraine-based ones have, as you mentioned, the same problem as Giuliano, but I like them both too.
Lucas Piazon was disappointing in the U17 WC and never played at São Paulo’s senior team. I think he will become a good player, but maybe not a regular member of the national team.
Interesting thoughts on Lucas Piazon. So you think he’s overrated? What did Chelsea see in him?
Hoping we won’t have another Keirrison on our hands…
I think when Chelsea started scouting him, he had not played in the South American U20s (or in the U20 World Cup) so he looked better than really is.
But at club level he might be just fine, so might be useful for Chelsea even if he turns out to play little for Brazil.
ive thought about brazils centre backs and what about douglas from fc twente? hes 23 and is tall and strong but he is also eligible to play for holland.
breno is a possibility too
Douglas is almost completely unknown in Brazil, which makes it very hard for him to get called up (think of players like Pepe who were never called up for Brazil). He also seems to want to play for the Dutch national team.
Breno was very promising at São Paulo, was one of the best defenders in the Brasileirão, but his career derailed after going to Bayern and hasn’t played anywhere near as often there as he used to.
I think if he leaves Bayern, his chances to get a place in the national team in the future will increase.
what formation do brazil tend to play?
In recent years Brazil have been playing in a 4-2-2-2 (and variations of 4-2-2-2) and that’s the favored formation.
But Mano Menezes plays a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 so that he can use both Robinho and Neymar as wingers. Otherwise he would have to drop one of them.
i heard barcelona signed adryan on a pre-contract and will join them when hes 18 , is this true?
another good midfielder is 19 year old fernando from gremio. he shone in the u20 world cup.
That’s just a rumor, just like there are similar rumors that he would join Man Utd.
Roberto Firmino (Hoffenheim) could be an option for one of the AM roles along with Ganso, Lucas, and Oscar…. although he suffers the same fate as Douglas at Twente in that he is relatively unknown and featured exclusively in Brazil’s Serie B before his move abroad.
Dede is an absolute beast and in my opinion should be partnering Thiago Silva ahead of Lucio already…. he is huge, agile, fast, a very good marker, tackler, and dominant in the air. He reminds me a lot of Jerome Boateng from Bayern Munich.
As far as future central defenders are concerned Luiz Eduardo (Sao Paulo) and Jomar (Vasco) are ones to keep an eye on.
Wallace (Fluminese) could push Danilo, as well as Rafael, in the future at RB.
Leandro Moura (Gremio) and Tiago Alves (Santos) have the potential to play up front for Brazil if they continue to grow and improve.
If Jucilei wouldn’t have moved to Anzi (Russia) he would be a prime candidate for a spot right now along with the host of Brazilians at Shaktar (Willian, Douglas Costa, and Alex Teixera)
I also forgot to throw Welder in the mix at RB (along with Danilo, Wallace, and Rafael).
At only 20 years old he is the starting RB at Corinthians and has played extremely well this entire season.