ROBERTOCARLOS Stage is set for a new world star in the making... Willian
Brazil’s Bullet Man is our World Cup legend SUNDAY MIRROR
Think about Pele, Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, the original Ronaldo: they all wrote their names in the history books by inspiring their countries to glory.
Who will join them this summer?
We know that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are desperate to win it, but I look at Brazil – my favourites, of course – and see two players who can really go to the next level in Russia.
The first one you can probably guess.
Watching Neymar’s brilliant goals against Croatia and Austria, I had one thought: this guy is going to explode at the World Cup.
He looks motivated and I predict we’re going to see fireworks over the next few weeks.
The injury lay-off will have helped him.
It was good for him physically, but also psychologically. He is now in the right mindset after a tough season with Paris Saintgermain.
That can only be good for Brazil. Neymar is going to be marvellous in Russia and win the trophy for us. But you know who else is going to have a big World Cup? Willian.
People talk about Messi, Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski and Neymar, but for me, Willian is right up there.
He’s in really good form and always takes responsibility on the pitch.
He’s a quiet guy who keeps to himself, but he’s going to surprise a lot of people this summer.
Willian is going to be the best player at the tournament, alongside Neymar.
He knows how important he is to this team and I want to see him start with a bang against Switzerland tonight.
There are always nerves before your opening game.
When I played, our first match was always fragmented, always tough – we only beat Scotland by one goal in 1998, remember, and it was a similar story in my next two World Cups. The good news is that everything becomes easier after that.
If you start with a victory, you go into the second game feeling calmer because you know that three more points will put you through. Switzerland have good players, but I think we will win 1-0. In Brazil, we call that a ‘sweaty’ victory! I liked what I saw from the Seleção in the warm-up friendlies. Both the defence and the attack are really well coordinated and organised, and we scored some lovely goals.
But I expect nothing less from a team managed by Tite, a coach I got to know well during my time at Corinthians. He is just a fantastic person. He tells it like it is, to your face. The players really respect him, and that feeling of unity is really important at a World Cup.
At the same time, Tite has a real desire for knowledge.
He came to Europe in 2014 to watch games and see how a few top clubs do things, and that helped him grow a lot.
Tite is the image of a modern coach.
People say Brazil, Germany and France have an even better chance after Spain’s issues, but I don’t see it like that.
Remember, the coach doesn’t play the matches. Fernando Hierro, an old team-mate of mine, knows the set-up very well.
Spain are still one of the favourites – maybe even more so than before if they can pull together after these problems.
But I’m still backing Brazil!
Interview: JACK LANG
@jacklang