Brazil’s mega-stars always turn up for duty
What England can learn from £200m Neymar
EVEn as coach of Brazil, Tite is not without problems. The huge expectancy of a footballobsessed public, the distance between his country and the European bases many of his players call home. one issue that affects England manager Gareth Southgate, however, Tite would not recognise.
His players turn up. Wherever the game, however they may feel, Brazil’s international footballers show. Even their greatest, neymar.
So dedicated is he to Brazil’s cause that there are those around his club, Paris Saint-Germain, who fear he prioritised last Friday’s international friendly against Japan over PSG’s previous Ligue 1 game at Angers on november 4.
‘neymar had a small blow to his muscle and didn’t feel well this morning,’ confirmed PSG coach unai Emery. ‘I spoke with the doctors and with him and we decided it was best if he stayed in Paris.’
Yet three days later when Brazil team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar gave an update on fitness at the training camp — coincidentally also located in Paris — there was no mention of a problem for neymar at all.
Sure enough, he started the Japan game in Lille four days later and scored from the penalty spot after 10 minutes. It was his 53rd goal in 82 internationals, putting him two short of Romario, nine behind Ronaldo and 24 off Pele’s record. Brazil won 3-1.
Those buying tickets for the visit of Brazil to Wembley tomorrow had no idea of the England team Southgate would be able to field — and they sure as hell won’t have predicted the one that will probably walk out — but they could have staked the price of admission on neymar’s presence.
It may help that Brazil now travel the world like the Harlem Globetrotters and are as likely to be found in northern France as Rio de Janeiro.
Yet in the two years of friendly matches before the 2014 World Cup, Brazil visited countries such as Sweden, Switzerland and England twice, played in Hamburg, Washington, Dallas, new Jersey, Malmo, Buenos Aires, Wroclaw, London, Geneva, Santa Cruz, Basle, Boston, Seoul, Beijing, Miami, Toronto and Johannesburg — as well as numerous Brazilian locations — and there his name is on the team sheet time and again: neymar, neymar, neymar.
Southgate, by comparison, cannot coax half his Tottenham selections around the north Circular on a Tuesday night. He got a knockback from Danny Drinkwater, for heaven’s sake.
In an age when international football appears to be losing its relevance, when England can field a captain who did not know who won the last World Cup, and an Englishman would have more chance of managing his country than an elite club in the Premier League, it is a thing of beauty, the feeling some of the best players in the world have for Brazil.
Philippe Coutinho has not played the last three games for Liverpool, but he still flew south to meet up with his national team, even injured. He was the only name in Dr Lasmar’s Tuesday bulletin — but he was still present, and did not return to his club. He has a chance now of starting on Tuesday, in what would be his first match since october 22.
As Southgate sits surrounded by screwedup pieces of paper and continues patching his squad together with battlefield promotions from the under 21s, Tite welcomed household name after household name to his European camp.
one might argue the emotion Brazilian players feel for their country can be counterproductive — witness the overwrought state of David Luiz before the humiliating 7-1 defeat by Germany, or neymar’s tears at a press conference this week — but its sincerity is genuine.
This is why PSG may be feeling disquiet. Having paid £196million for neymar, will they be marginalised in his thoughts in World Cup year? As the 2018 tournament approaches, it is becoming clear where his