Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday expressed his reservations about the quality of Brazilian football. He is particularly concerned about the absence of a national coach.
Concerned president lashes out at Brazil’s national team: “It’s sad”
“Brazilian football is not doing well,” Lula said in a live stream on social media. “We don’t have the best football in the world anymore. It is sad that our national team, considered one of the best in the world, has not yet found a coach.”
The players also received a beating from the president. “We can’t make a great squad because we no longer have players of the same quality as those in the 1970 World Cup. They were mature, experienced men. Not only did we have children, we had men in the selection, like Pelé, who was thirty years old at the time,” the president continued.
Lula expressed his annoyance at the status of the national competition. “We have become an export country of players, we sell them before they are 17 and buy them back when they are 34. This is the logic of Brazilian football,” he concluded.
Brazil will play exhibition games against two African opponents on Saturday and Tuesday. After a meeting with Guinea, a showdown with Senegal awaits three days later. The Divine Canaries saw national coach Tite leave after the failed World Cup in Qatar, but a successor is still missing. The country has been flirting with Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti for some time, but that has not yet become concrete.
Special support to Vinícius Júnior results in fascinating international friendly matches
Brazil and Spain will play a friendly match against each other next year. The two superpowers meet as part of a campaign against racism. Vinícius Júnior regularly fell victim to racism in Spain.
Last month things went wrong in the away game with Valencia. Vinicius took to the crowd in Valencia and was shown a red card after hitting an opponent in the face. That caused a lot of emotions. The arbitration was tough. Afterwards, Vinícius issued a statement in which he indicated that this was not the first, second or third time that this had happened.
Before, during and after the friendly match in March 2024, the unions of Brazil and Spain will draw attention to this difficult issue. “There is no place for racist expressions in football,” said Luis Rubiales of the Spanish federation. “It is important that there is a tougher punishment after a racist incident,” says his colleague Ednaldo Rodrigues from Brazil.
The match between Brazil and Spain will be played at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, home to Real Madrid. The two countries last faced each other more than ten years ago in the final for the Confederations Cup. Brazil won that game 3-0 with goals from Fred (twice) and Neymar. The last exhibition match between the superpowers dates back to 1999, when it ended 0-0.
