Luís Roberto should take over from Galvão as the voice of the national team at Globo, but with less autonomy

Faced with the announced departure of Galvão Bueno from Globo at the end of the Qatar Cup, next December, the succession of the country’s main sports announcer opens a betting market with a high speculative content: who would be his successor from 2023?

All the chips, at this moment, are in Luís Roberto, not by chance, the only narrator who will accompany Galvão to Qatar for the on-site transmission of games by Globo at the World Cup.

Most matches will be narrated directly from studios in Brazil, between Rio and São Paulo, also featuring Cléber Machado and Renata Silveira on open TV. The full list was officially announced on Friday (5th).

Luís Roberto has already been treated as the second announcer of the house for at least two years, a period of great transformations in the broadcaster’s sport. But Galvão’s only field assured to him, for the time being, is the narration of matches of the Brazilian team.

Globo does not plan to create a successor to the veteran with the same concentration of power and relevance achieved by him. World competitions in other modalities, with less spotlight than football, may encompass other voices, remembering that the broadcaster no longer has the rights to broadcast Formula 1, an event that also helped boost Galvão’s stardom.

Furthermore, in this passing of the baton, the same premise that determined the replacement of Faustão by Luciano Huck, and, more previously, of Jô Soares by Pedro Bial, is valid. In short, today’s stars accumulate less autonomy than yesterday’s stars.

In this way, Globo reduces the bargaining power acquired by its big brands, making it less hostage to their superlative talents.

In sports, the process of change began with the autonomy of the area in relation to journalism, at the end of 2017. The segment became a third pillar in the group, alongside entertainment, a concept that would also be present in the sports coverage of more evident way.

In terms of choosing Luís Roberto, it is also important to consider the lack of relevance of São Paulo in relation to Rio de Janeiro in the investments currently being made at Globo, in the sports field.

In conversation with professionals in the area, the report found that even the studios in Belo Horizonte are more apt than those in São Paulo to embrace large broadcasts at this time.

The perception of Rio de Janeiro’s predominance is corroborated by the list of names announced to go to the Middle East in the on-site coverage of the World Cup. Among the narrators and commentators scheduled to travel to Qatar, there will be only two representatives from the São Paulo headquarters: commentator Caio Ribeiro, for Globo, and narrator Milton Leite, for SporTV.

A month ago, the station terminated the contract of Walter Casagrande Jr., also from São Paulo – a columnist for Sheet–, who appeared as the main football commentator of the house since the Penta Cup, in 2002.

THE Sheet has sought Globo insistently, through its press office, in search of information about the choices to be made after Galvão Bueno’s departure, but has not received an answer on the matter so far.

Grupo Globo, as a whole, has signaled the prospect of expanding diversity in front of and behind the screens, and this also applies to sports. Thus, the movement of professionals at this moment involves this issue.

Although she is scheduled to work from Brazil in November, Renata Silveira will be the first woman to join a team of narrators for a World Cup on open TV.

But it should be noted that Galvão Bueno’s succession will not be directly affected by this proposal, since Luís Roberto will be the most targeted segment by audience and advertisers, with a voice over the Brazilian team’s football.

Although the successor will not accumulate the same concentration of power as Galvão, being able to be more easily replaced when necessary, the house should have a name that is hierarchically superior to the others, even for commercial purposes: advertisers feel more confident in investing in someone in whom the company also demonstrates to bet as a priority.

In 2018, when Globo brought Gustavo Villani from Fox Sports, much was said on his behalf as Galvão’s replacement, and the matter was already treated with the same parameters as someone who would be anointed to the post of narrator of the main competitions broadcast by the network without , however, gain the same power as the predecessor.

But Villani did not advance in the conquest of space, even by the criteria determined by the current direction of sports at Globo.

This is the scenario of the moment, remembering that the station will have a few months to regain the breath of great broadcasts, which will be marked by the return of Libertadores, in 2023.

But until the Paris Olympics, in 2024, there will still be a deadline to test other alternatives available for the succession of Galvão Bueno in all sports fields.