What’s the common denominator with most of the players on this Selecao? Most of these players never actually played much in Brazil. Their development was done in Europe. What’s happened is that the Brazilian leagues have been turned in youth leagues and these Brazilian player’s development has been more influenced by their European experience.
Just look at the careers of Luis Gustavo, Dante, Fred, Hulk, David Luiz, Fernandinho, Thiago Silva… They have all moved from small Brazilian teams to Europe at a young age, some even moved to small European teams before the age of 20-21 and were then raised and developed at major European teams. For example Hulk only played 1 game in Brazil before transferring to Japan and then was loaned out to a minor league (2nd division) Japanese team where he played until he was 23.
Romario, Bebeto, Pele, Zico, and the bulk of the best Brazilian team members moved to Europe much later in their careers or even never played outside of Brazil. At least they established themselves as huge stars in Brazil before moving to teams outside of Brazil. Even Neymar waited until he was 22 and had already won everything there was to win in Brazil.
The majority of the players on the current Brazilian team hadn’t won anything in Brazil and/or played for unknown teams in the 2nd through 4th division in Brazil before moving to Europe before the age of 21.
I see the current trend in Brazil is to blame and accuse their own system of being wrong, but it’s actually that they stopped using Brazilian raised and developed players, opting for players who gained their early professional development and experience in Europe and Asia!
Don’t blame Brazilian soccer, blame your greed for selling these players before they were ready and then for trusting European and Asian soccer to develop your Selecao.
