Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti called up seven players who play for Brazilian teams for the World Cup, breaking the stagnation seen in the last five editions, when that number was no more than four names.
In his list released this Monday (18), Ancelotti announced goalkeeper Weverton (Grêmio), striker Neymar (Santos), midfielders Danilo (Botafogo) and Lucas Paquetá (Flamengo), and defenders Léo Pereira (Flamengo), Danilo (Flamengo) and Alex Sandro (Flamengo).
Thus, Brazil will have a 27% “homemade” team in this World Cup. In the last World Cup, in Qatar, the representation of national team players was just 12%.
Ancelotti’s change, however, is far from taking the team to the 2002 scenario, the last one with a squad that was more homegrown than foreign. In the year of the fifth championship, then coach Luiz Felipe Scolari took 13 names who played in the country to the competition in South Korea and Japan.
The change from a home team to a “foreign” one happened for the first time in 1990, in the Italian Cup. At the time, 22 players were called up, 12 from international teams, such as Benfica, Porto, Napoli, among others.
Before that, the number of Brazilians working abroad was small. From the 1938 World Cup to the 1978 World Cup, the team was only represented with players active in Brazil.
Another hallmark of this call-up is the representation of Flamengo, which has four players selected. It is the first time since 2002 that a Brazilian team has surpassed a European team in the ranking of largest suppliers of athletes to the national team. Four players from the Gávea team will compete in the tournament in North America: midfielder Lucas Paquetá and defenders Léo Pereira, Danilo and Alex Sandro.
The last time a national team sent four players to the national team in the same edition occurred in 1994, the year of the four, coincidentally in the United States. At the time, São Paulo was the club with the most representatives, with Zetti, Cafu, Leonardo and Müller among those called up.
After Flamengo, there is the Russian Zenit Saint Petersburg, with two athletes, and the English Manchester United and Arsenal, also with two players each.
From then on, the list has one player from each team, they are: Santos, Grêmio and Botafogo (Brazil), Roma, (Italy), Real Madrid (Spain), Paris Saint-Germain (France), Newcastle United (England), Lyon (France), Liverpool (England), Juventus (Italy), Fenerbahce (Turkey), Brentford (England), Bournemouth (England), Barcelona (Spain), Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli (Saudi Arabia).
