Everton signing Bernard among latest crop of South Americans in the Premier League but at what cost to back home in Brazil?
Footballing standard in Brazilian league much lower than it was 20 years ago as European clubs increasingly swoop on star names earlier
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JUST over five years ago, England went to Brazil to re-open Rio’s iconic Maracana stadium with a friendly against the hosts.
Recent Everton signing Bernard came on for the last ten minutes. He had made a brief substitute appearance for his country a few months earlier.
But that was part of a team entirely made up of home-based players. The England game, then, counts as his debut with the full strength side.
In the press conference after the 2-2 draw, then-Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said that Bernard had come up to him, wide eyed.
“Wow, coach,” he had said, “It’s much more intense than a club game.”
It is a highly revealing comment. At that point Bernard, then with Atletico Mineiro, was well on the way towards winning the Copa Libertadores, South America’s equivalent of the Champions League.
In terms of the continent’s club football, there is no higher peak to be scaled. But he found the closing stages of an end of season friendly to be a significant step up.
This week marks the 24th anniversary of my re-location to Rio. In the first few club games I attended, I felt like a kid who has stumbled across a brand new sweet shop.
I could hardly believe the quality of some of the players on show – unknowns as far as the British public were concerned, but clearly capable of greatness.
There were two midfield Juninhos, one of course destined for Middlesbrough, the other for Lyon.
There was an ugly duckling called Rivaldo in the process of becoming a swan. There was a left back called Roberto Carlos who was so good that it seemed inconceivable that he was not a global star. The conveyor belt went on and on.
Nearly two and a half decades later, the scene is very different. Talent of that type would no longer be based in Brazil past the age of 20. Europe would already have swooped.
On an individual basis, the level of the Brazilian league now is much, much lower than it was 24 years ago. And in tactical terms it can also appear stuck in the past.
Once the World Cup was out of the way, this year’s Brazilian Championship instantly resumed. 1970 great Tostao, the wisest voice in the Brazilian game, was quick to hit the nail on the head.
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“Watching the domestic games,” he wrote “the differences [between those and World Cup matches] are huge.
"So many bad habits, accumulated over the years, are on display, such as the enormous spaces between the lines of the team, the centre backs lying deep on the edge of their own area, an excess of long passes to marked team-mates, hopeful crosses thrown into the area, and many other things.”
It makes it tough to judge whether or not a player will be able to adjust to top level football.
And it helps explain why the European clubs are so keen to bring players across the Atlantic as early as possible – which in turn further weakens the domestic league.
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One player who has clearly demonstrated the capacity to adapt is Richarlison. At the time Watford bought him, he was not even seen as the brightest young talent in the Fluminense side.
But he has already made Watford a fortune and got off to a flying start with Everton. The physical intensity of his game has proved well suited to the Premier League.
He is now joined by Bernard, a skilful but much less imposing figure, whose time with Shaktah Donetsk was not an overwhelming success.
Can he now shine with Everton? Or, like that time in the Maracana back in 2013, will he wear the air of a little boy lost?