The recent success of foreign coaches in Brazilian football has not convinced a large part of the population about the possibility of the national team being managed by an outside professional. This hypothesis is rejected by 55% of the population, according to the most recent Datafolha survey.
The survey was carried out on the 27th and 28th of July. A total of 2,556 people aged 16 and over were interviewed in 183 municipalities. The margin of error is plus or minus two percentage points within the 95% confidence level.
There was a considerable increase in rejection compared to the previous survey. The same question was asked at the end of 2019 – also in verification with a margin of error of two percentage points –, when 46% were against the foreign command in the green-yellow team.
At the time, 39% said they were in favor. That number has now dropped to 30%. Faced with the 2022 questioning, there were 8% who declared themselves indifferent about the nationality of the Brazilian coach, and another 7% said they did not know what to answer.
The first survey took place on December 5 and 6, 2019, not long after Portuguese Jorge Jesus led Flamengo to the Copa Libertadores title. The convincing rubro-negro football broke records, such as scoring in the Brazilian Championship.
Months later, Jesus left, leaving the Flamengoists longing and a successor in Brazilian lands. The 2020 and 2021 editions of Libertadores, the most coveted cup in South America, had the triumph of another Portuguese, Abel Ferreira, from Palmeiras, very much alive in the fight for the tri.
These results, together with the perception (true or not) that once successful Brazilian coaches had become obsolete, led several teams to seek professionals abroad. This year’s Campeonato Brasileiro began with outsiders on the sidelines in nine of the 20 Serie A teams.
Their stability, however, is no exception to Brazil’s rule, with frequent changes in command. Today, there are five foreign coaches in the championship: three Portuguese (Abel Ferreira, from Palmeiras, Luís Castro, from Botafogo, and Vítor Pereira, from Corinthians), an Argentine (Juan Pablo Vojvoda, from Fortaleza) and a Paraguayan (Gustavo Morínigo, from Coritiba).
All of these, to a greater or lesser extent, are prestigious by club boards and loved by fans. But the Brazilian still seems resistant to the possibility of handing the keys to the five-time champion team to a non-Brazilian.
“The understanding that rejection has increased perhaps is less due to the Brazilian team and more to the work performed by foreign coaches in Brazilian clubs from 2019 to 2022”, says Marcel Diego Tonini, PhD in Social History from USP (University of São Paulo).
He recalled, notable exceptions aside, that professionals from abroad have been fired with the same ease as Brazilians. The Argentines Antonio Mohamed (Atlético Mineiro) and Fabián Bustos (Santos), the Uruguayan Alexander Medina (Internacional) and the Portuguese Paulo Sousa (Flamengo) only fell in the current Nacional, leaving a bad image.
“They had their jobs contested and, consequently, their contracts terminated. This probably explains the greater rejection of the presence of a foreign coach in the Brazilian team in 2022 than in 2019”, says Tonini, also referring to the dismissals of the last two years.
Tite, who commanded the national team at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and will be its commander at the Qatar World Cup in 2022, has already warned that he will not remain in 2023. And the president of the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation), Ednaldo Rodrigues, was open to betting on a foreigner – as in the women’s team, directed by Sweden’s Pia Sundhage.
If this does occur, there will be snub noses of all kinds. In any datafolha survey, whether by sex, age group, education, family income, region, color, religion, degree of interest in the World Cup or favorite candidate in the presidential election, the opposites outweigh the favorable ones.
There are, however, nuances. Men, for example, are more open to an outside coach (36% in favor, 53% against, with a margin of error of three percentage points) than women (24% in favor, 57% against, with the same margin of error).
The older ones are the most reticent. Only 21% are in favor among Brazilians over 60, with 64% against. In the 25-34 age group, 36% are in favor, 50% against. In both cases, the margin of error is four points.
“That there is a certain taboo in relation to the Brazilian men’s team, there is. Let’s not forget that we had only two unique and special experiences with foreigners under his command: Joreca [português]in 1944, and Filpo Núñez [argentino]in 1965”, says Tonini, now a member of the Brazilian Football Reference Center, at the Football Museum.
“It is possible that the good experience with Pia Sundhage in the Brazilian women’s team serves as a basis for the CBF to speculate on the presence of a foreigner in the men’s team, as well as to feel the reaction of fans, journalists and the Brazilian fans themselves”, concludes the researcher. .
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