Word: brazile
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...campaign for local lads does serve a greater purpose, explains Juca Kfouri, a well-known broadcaster and journalist. Since the Brazilian soccer federation sold the rights to organize friendly matches to a private sponsor, the team now plays as many games in Europe as in Brazil. And top players such as Kaka, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho have recently put club before country, giving supporters little opportunity to see their national heroes up close. As a result, the historically tight bond between the ordinary fans in the stands and their idols on the pitch has snapped. "There's no link between...
...irony is that Lula might have a point. Players who play for Brazil's cash-strapped and poorly run pro clubs probably do want to play for their country more than those in the foreign legion. The European-based players have to shlep themselves all the way across the Atlantic every couple of months to join the national squad for World Cup qualifiers against lesser teams like Peru and Bolivia - and even if they make the trip, they aren't even guaranteed a game for a talent-rich squad of 22 of which only 11 can play. And then...
...idea of giving preference to home-based players is not new, but it is unworkable, and most people know it. In fact, it was tried in 1990, when coach Paulo Roberto Falcao picked only Brazil-based players for his first five games in charge. The team never won a match - and scored just one goal - prompting Falcao to quickly abandoned the idea. Today, such a strategy has even less chance of success given the rate at which Brazil's international-class players are snapped up by foreign sides. A team of home-based players would struggle against even mediocre European...
...most of the money in international pro soccer is concentrated, which is why the best players from throughout the world tend to earn their wages there. Still, for the President and many other fans, the answer to restoring national pride lies with selecting more home-based players in the Brazil team, the theory being that those closer to home have a greater desire to represent their country than those earning pounds and Euros. Finding such player may be a tough prospect, however, because so many Brazilian players are lured overseas at increasingly young ages: last year, alone, 1,085 Brazilian...
...such is the disillusion with the national team that the suggestion has sparked intense interest. Lance!, the country's biggest selling sports newspaper, has proposed that at least half of the Brazil team should be made up of home-based stars. "We often don't even know some of the players called up to the Brazil squad, and often those that are act like they are doing us a favor," the paper wrote in a front-page editorial. "Today, a player is more likely to get called up if he plays in the Ukraine than if he plays...