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Brazil’s Soul Search
Normally an article on a young player from South America begins thus: “You may not have heard of him, but Ernesto Weistomonho…”.
I won’t bother this time, because a combination of YouTube, various newspaper columnists and Eurosport’s blanket coverage of World Youth Championships means that, among the footballing fraternity, Kerlon Moura Souza is now a household name.
Kerlon has been nicknamed Foquinha, meaning ‘little seal’ in Portuguese. This is not because he spends his spare time melting wax onto envelopes, rather it is down to his extraordinary - and near faultless - ability to dribble the ball on his forehead. You would think Brazilian football would be celebrating the emergence of such a player - still only 19 - as the second coming. Yet there exists an almost universal response to his frequent execution of the manoevre in Brazil’s uncompromising Série A.
It is for a defender to unceremoneously barge him to the ground. Not just a little push, you understand, but a full-on Schumacher-versus-Battiston body check. That Kerlon continues to use the trick, which is tremendously effective and almost impossible to combat without the use of a small stepladder, is a tribute to his indefatigability and, more pertinently, his bravery.
Last week his team, Cruzeiro, led Atlético Mineiro 4-3 after about 80 minutes. Kerlon unleashed the move, beating a defender easily before a second, Dyego Coelho, clattered into him and a brawl followed. Watching the clip on YouTube this morning [see below for the video], it is difficult to avoid raising several questions.
Firstly, Dyego Coelho is a right-back, so what on earth was he doing so far out of position? Moreover, why is Brazil, a nation so indebted to the extravagant individual skills of so many players, so keen to cast Foquinha as the villain? Atlético Mineiro’s manager, Émerson Leão, accused Foquinha of breaking an ‘unwritten code of morals’. This evidently reads something like “It is OK to assault an opponent but unacceptable to make one feel a bit silly.”
Brazil’s footballing community has a bizarre juxtaposition of values; expression and extravagance on one side and a borish culture of macho violence on the other. Mass brawls and shockingly wreckless tackling are commonplace in the abysmal Série A. It is no wonder that any half-decent young Brazilian player, of which Foquinha is undoubtably one, is desperate to move halfway across the world.
If Brazil win the 2010 World Cup - and they are surely among the favourites as European nations never win World Cups in other continents - it will be down to the expression, innovation and ruthless execution of the likes of Robinho, Ronaldinho, Kaká, Foquinha and Diego. Dyego Coelho and his like will be nowhere to be seen and Brazil will be a far better team for it.
Dunga, one of Brazil’s more functional players and current national team manager, seems in two minds. He will view the mob of Atlético Mineiro defenders standing over Foquinha screaming abuse and scrapping with his team-mates in one of two ways. An ensemble of fine, upstanding no-nonsense professionals reacting justifiably to a slap in the face from an annoying little upstart; or as a collection of incompetent, brutal cloggers reacting in the way that most alpha-males do when they’re embarrassed.
I’m not optimistic. Since Dunga’s arrival after the 2006 World Cup, Brazil have been dull, functional and disappointing. They stumbled to the Copa América title that Argentina, by any logic, deserved to win. They mostly ground out results before achieving a freak win over a naïve, unlucky but infinitely more creative Argentina. Chances are they cannot rely on luck to win the World Cup by the same process. On his interpretation of the Coelho-Foquinha incident hang Brazil’s hopes for 2010.
Will Brazil emerge victorious in 2010? Share your views by leaving a comment below.
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[…] while unhappy at his own side’s performance, he berated Portuguese international Nani for his Kerlon-style seal dribble (see video below), accusing him of […]