A few months ago a website wanted to pay me good money to go to Santos and write a profile piece on the team’s young striker Gabriel ‘Gabigol’ Barbosa. And I ended up talking myself out of a lucrative commission. The idea started to lose appeal when he did little of note at the start of the year in the South American Under-20 Championships. And it died a death when he was not even selected […]
The late English showman Bob Monkhouse had at least one great line in his locker; “everyone laughed when I told them I was going to be a comedian,” he said. “Well, they’re not laughing now!” It is a comment that Botafogo goalkeeper Jefferson may well appreciate. An unorthodox part of his modest upbringing in Sao Vicente, on the outskirts of Santos, was a spell he spent in a circus as a clown’s assistant. But he […]
Brazil’s first competitive games after the World Cup shambles came in the South American Under-20 Championships, which have just come to a conclusion in Uruguay. With a young, articulate coach in Alexandre Gallo, who had time to prepare for the competition, this was an excellent opportunity to put last year’s disappointments in the past and show that Brazilian football has licked its wounds, learned its lessons and moved on. That opportunity was emphatically not taken. […]
For a decade now, around this time of the year, the Footecon event has taken place in Rio. Its tag line – ‘the main forum of the football industry in the Americas.’ It began life more than anything as a conference of coaches, and at heart that is what it remains, though over the years it has tagged on elements of business. Time to declare an interest; I have attended every edition of Footecon. I […]