The reporter reported coldlyAt the same time that the president of the Brazilian Football Federation was absurdly removed by the court, the 36-year-old Suarez won the MVP of the Brazilian league, and at the same time, the 18-year-old Roque**, who is considered to be "Ronaldo II", joined Barcelona, and another 17-year-old genius Endrick was signed by Real Madrid in advance. The parallel of the aging and the younger age of Brazilian football is a particularly prominent anomaly in recent years.
Elderly players over the age of 30 who have returned from abroad have almost become the core of the major giants in the Brazilian league, blocking the upward channel of Mesozoic players to a certain extent. The age at which homegrown talent players are poached by European giants is getting younger and younger, and their careers are getting less and less. Brazilian football is still the largest "semi-finished talent" in world football, but these talented "samba flavors" who left too early are increasingly lacking, and are being alienated into European players who are more European in terms of football awareness and skills in addition to their identity.
Like the management crisis of Brazil's low level of football, the pyramid football system of the Samba Kingdom has changed to an hourglass system in which older and younger players become the protagonists, and it is also the bane that the football kingdom needs to be vigilant against.
At the Brazilian Liga awards ceremony at the end of last year, the best player award was the 36-year-old Suarez, and the best newcomer award was the 17-year-old Endrick, who will join Real Madrid this summer. One old and one young, has become a portrayal of the age structure of the top players in the Brazilian league.
Half of the top 8 in this year's Brazilian league assist list are newcomers under the age of 23, and the 26-year-old Flamengo striker Pedro in the Mesozoic Era - the young Endrick, Roque, Leonardo and Paulinho represent the bottom of the huge and fragile hourglass system of Brazilian football, and too many newcomers have not yet been fully experienced and famous on home soil like Neymar, and they have been snapped up by European giants in a half-finished way. David Washington and Angelo, who Chelsea snapped up this summer, have both made fewer than 15 appearances in the Brazilian Liga and are a case in point. In contrast, Roque, who has two years of experience in the Brazilian league, is considered a half-cooked and semi-finished talent.
As many as 17 prodigies under the age of 18 have featured in the Brazilian league this season, including Palmeiras' right-winger Eastfertile Willian, who is known as "Messi Jr.", centre-forward Endrick, who will move to Real Madrid in the summer, and attacking midfielder Guilherme. Roque, who has just joined Barcelona for a maximum transfer fee of 61 million euros, is only 18th among the youngest players to appear in the Brazilian league this season. Left winger Savio, who had just come to prominence at Atletico Mineiro last year, was immediately poached by Ligue 1 club Troyes and made a name for himself in Girona this season.
People cheered for the emergence of geniuses, and regretted the departure of geniuses, but it was the veterans who really supported the Bajia. Seven of the top 12 scorers in the Brazilian league this year are veterans over 30 years old, including the likes of Suarez and Hulk. The top two on the assist list are exactly these two.
At the age of 40, Melo can still gain a foothold in the Brazilian giants, 38-year-old Fernandinho, Felipe, Raphinha, 37-year-old Hulk, 36-year-old Suarez, Payet, LAdriano, David Ruiz, Gil, Medel, Vidal, Moraes, 35-year-old Paulinho, Marcelo, Diego Costa, etc., are all over the major giants, and have become representatives of the aging phenomenon that has become more and more common in the Brazilian league in recent years. In fact, since the 35-year-old Oliveira won the Brazilian Liga Golden Boot and Ballon d'Or in 2015, the aging of Brazilian football has become more serious.
Robinho and Diego in 2016, Jo, Hernanes, Neves in 2017, Raphinha and Felipe in 2019, Hulk in 2021, and Suarez in 2023 have made the list of the best players of the year in the Brazilian Liga a a long time. This is not counting the above-mentioned 34-year-old + returning veterans who have not entered the best team, Augusto, Teixeira, Giuliano, Everton, Pato, McCone and other returning veterans occupy the main position with high salaries, squeezing the living space of the Mesozoic powerhouse. Palmeiras, who won the Brazilian Liga championship two years in a row, has a defensive line full of veterans over 30 years old. Endrick will join Real Madrid as soon as he turns 18 in the summer, and the 16-year-old "Little Messi" Easterfeng has only played 12 minutes in the Brazilian Liga and has become the target of major giants.
Neymar played three and a half seasons at Santos, won trophies and individual best titles, accumulated enough game experience, and only landed in the big five leagues at the age of 21. As a result, in the past 10 years, despite the constant injuries, he is still the most accomplished player in Brazilian football in Europe. Brazil's economic crisis, which has dragged on for almost a decade, coupled with the heavy impact of the pandemic, has accelerated the loss of top Brazilian talent from Europe's young age, which in turn has shaken the foundation of Brazilian football's cultivation of mature talent. More and more Brazilian rookies simply don't have enough experience in the professional league, landing in Europe before they are technically and mentally mature. On the one hand, it has weakened the talent iteration of the Brazilian league itself, and more importantly, it has affected the growth rate of Brazilian football talents.
Vinicius and Rodrygo, who were booked by giants before the age of 18, have become successful examples of this "young age" plunder, triggering European giants to follow suit. Barcelona won Roque, Real Madrid booked Endrick, and unsurprisingly, the younger Easterfon will soon become famous. Last year alone, Chelsea snapped up three semi-finished newcomers of defender Andre Santos, winger Angelo and center forward David Washington, the former is the captain of the Brazilian Under-20 national youth team, but only has one year of experience in the Brazilian second league, and the transfer of the latter two is the result of the panic dumping of Santos, who is on the verge of relegation.
Despite the success of Rodrygo and Vinicius Jr. at Real Madrid, this brain drain has done more harm than good to Brazil's domestic league and players. Leaving Brazil too early leaves the players with immature technical characteristics, and when they arrive in Europe, they are quickly assimilated into the high-intensity competition and the assembly line of European systematic football, and become "more European" Brazilian players. Brazilian football legend Cafu asserted at the end of last year that the more Brazilian players who play in the Premier League, the lower the chances of Brazil winning the World Cup. Essentially, it was the systematization of entering European football too early that Brazilian players lost their natural advantage.
The loss of young talent in Brazilian football will continue to worsen in the future, as Real Madrid's success has opened up the prospect of a more cost-effective talent deal for European football. However, only a very small number of them have succeeded, and more Brazilian rookies who have been taken away from Europe prematurely will fall victim to the "young age" brain drain due to technical and psychological immaturity. Does anyone remember that Barcelona bought from Atletico Mineiro 4 years ago to prepare for Alves' Emerson?And the 18-year-old midfielder Heine, who Real Madrid signed from Flamengo for 30 million euros three years ago?And the 19-year-old winger Franza, who joined Crystal Palace for 20 million euros last summerThis kind of behavior of exhausting the fish is also a man-made disaster for Brazilian football to destroy the foundation of talent training and gradually extinguish the personality of samba football.