Ramon Menezes will lead the Brazil national team in a friendly duel with Morocco. The fifty-year-old coach moves on from the Under-20 team. He was recently crowned best in South America. Menezes, who was active as a player for a laundry list of Brazilian clubs and also a year for Bayer Leverkusen, trained in the past, among others, Vasco da Gama and Vitoria.
The match against Morocco in Tangier on March 25 is Brazil’s first challenge on the way to the 2026 World Cup.
Speaking of the topic: Carlo Ancelotti the successor to Tite? The Brazilian federation felt compelled to come up with an official statement.
In Brazil it was suggested that Ancelotti had an oral agreement with the Brazilian federation about cooperation. The Italian would succeed Tite, who left the Seleção after the World Cup.
The Real Madrid coach himself had already referred the stories to the realm of fables. Nevertheless, the Brazilian federation (CBF) deemed it necessary to take an unusual step and come up with a statement. “The news that Ancelotti will be the new national coach is unfounded,” they stated.
The CBF then repeated the earlier statements of federation chairman Ednaldo Rodrigues that the name of the new national coach will be announced at the ‘right time’.
The Italian manager was also forced to comment. The future of Ancelotti himself is also not entirely certain. He would be in the emphatic interest of the Brazilian federation, incidentally denied by the federation itself. “The players don’t ask me about it, but they joke about it. The reality is that I have a contract until 2024,” he said.
Rodrygo’s nightmare
Speaking of the World Cup, hardly a day goes by where his miss at the World Cup doesn’t flash through Rodrygo’s head.
“I try not to think about it, but it’s impossible,” Real Madrid’s Brazilian told Mundo Deportivo. “It’s sad because I had an excellent World Cup, I played every game very well and then a penalty kick changed that a bit.”
The 22-year-old attacker was the first Brazilian to stand behind the ball during the penalty shootout in the quarterfinals at the World Cup. While Croatia hit four times, Marquinhos also missed from eleven meters, so that the South Americans got the short end of the stick.
“But of course you have to keep going, you shouldn’t think about that and we have to stay focused, train more with penalties because I know I will be taking penalties again soon. It’s something I’m good at. I know they’re going to need me and I have to be ready,” he added.
