Mykola Nesenyuk: "In the last 20 years, there has been a problem with the Brazilian national team..."

The well-known journalist Mykola Nesenyuk touched upon the topic of Brazilian football.

Mykola Neseniuk

"Today's young people probably wouldn't believe that during the second half of the last century, Brazil was considered the undisputed leader of world football, the cradle of new and new outstanding players, a source of coaching ideas and the birthplace of real football - fast, technical, attacking, spectacular! In reality, it was not quite like that. But then, we, and not only we, saw those Brazilians only once every four years as part of the national team in the final tournament of the World Cup. They were always the favourites there - five world titles confirm this! At that time, only a few dozen Brazilians played in European clubs - the best of the best!

Everything changed in the mid-nineties when, following the Bosman case, the limits on foreigners in European clubs were cancelled. A cloud of thousands of players from Brazil flooded into Europe, and later into Asia. Since then, they have been playing everywhere - from leading superclubs for million-dollar contracts to amateur teams in Latvia, Croatia or Finland for food and uniforms.

But the Brazilian national team is a bit of a mixed bag - in the last twenty years, the team of the "most footballing" country in the world has not only never won a single World Cup title, but has even reached the semi-finals only once, losing to the Germans with an obscenely crushing score. The reason for this seemingly incomprehensible phenomenon is simple: since the mid-nineties, the Brazilian national football team has gradually turned from a team of the country's best players led by the best coaches into a company that resells players. In the early 2000s, almost everyone in Brazil was doing this. It was a kind of football pyramid scheme where everyone from the coaches of backyard teams to the highest football executives wanted to make money from players. The demand was enormous - there were plenty of people around the world who wanted to "strengthen" their team with Brazilians! Indeed, why bother with the education of young footballers when you can bring Brazilians and ensure the result!

Of course, a Brazilian's membership of the national team automatically increased the cost of his transfer. Therefore, those who wanted to get this additional "margin" did everything possible to "get" their player into the Brazilian national team. I can't say that it was done for money, but the fact that the Brazilian national team had become like a passageway through which agents were pushing their players to increase their transfer value was obvious to everyone. Therefore, there was no reason to expect championship titles from a team formed not by coaches but by agents. As a result, Brazil has not claimed the title of world champion for a long time, and the list of Brazilian players who have won the Ballon d'Or ended fifteen years ago with a player with the eloquent nickname Kaka.

You may notice that the cost of national team players is higher than in other countries, not only in Brazil but also in all other countries. This is true, but in most of them, players get into the national team only after they have a serious contract at a serious club. Players in the leading European championships and their agents do not need to be in the national team. It is a nice bonus for them and nothing more. At the same time, there is no doubt that agents' attempts to "pump" their players through the national team are not unique to Brazil. Sometimes they even succeed. But the fact is that a footballer from Estonia, for example, who may be of interest to a wealthy European club, will get into his national team without an agent.

But let's get back to the Brazilians, who continue to come to European shores in shoals. Even in war-torn Ukraine. We have a paradoxical situation - all Ukrainian "football clubs", without exception, are trying to sell their players abroad for as much as possible, sometimes inviting cheap or even free Brazilians to take their place. Where is the logic? Or did the Brazilian experience not teach everyone?" Neseniuk wrote on his Facebook page.