Selection will have record for “foreigners” and individual brands in Qatar; see curiosities

For the fifth consecutive edition of the World Cup, Brazil will be represented by a team with less than five athletes who work in clubs in the country.

Coach Tite’s call-up has only three active players in Brazil. They are goalkeeper Weverton (Palmeiras), midfielder Everton Ribeiro and striker Pedro (Flamengo).

The number was repeated in 2006, 2010 and 2018. As the total number of players called up to 26 – due to the heat in Qatar and the Covid pandemic -, this will be the most “foreign” team of all the Cups, with 23 athletes who play abroad and only 11.5% in clubs in Brazil.

At the 2014 World Cup, when the tournament was played on Brazilian soil, four athletes from national clubs were called up by then coach Luiz Felipe Scolari.

The last call-up with a majority at home was in 2002, the year of the fifth championship in Japan and Korea. Also assembled by Felipão, the cast had 13 names acting in the country. Some were starters in the campaign, such as goalkeeper Marcos (Palmeiras) and midfielders Gilberto Silva (Atlético-MG) and Kleberson (Athletico-PR).

If it reaches the sixth in Qatar, this will be the first Brazilian team to win the world with more representatives working outside the country.

The “outsider” majority occurs for the seventh time in history, consolidating a trend observed since the 1990s. The main factor for this change was the opening of European clubs to players from other continents.

Until then, Europeans counted towards the foreigners limit if they played outside their own country – for example, an Italian playing in England. With the fall of work borders in the European Union, the quota no longer includes community players, opening more space for athletes from other continents in top teams.

The first mostly “foreign” team was the 1990 World Cup, formed by coach Sebastião Lazaroni with 12 players from European clubs and 10 from Brazilian teams.

Since then, approximately 71% of those called up to play hopscotch at World Cups have been from foreign clubs (148, against 59).

In 1994, the delegation of Carlos Alberto Parreira had a composition divided in half. It won the fourth championship in the United States with 11 representatives from national teams and 11 from other countries.

The first international presence took place in 1934, with the call-up of forward Patesko, who played for Nacional-URU.

It was also the only one in the first 11 editions of the Cup, until 1978. Four years later, Telê Santana broke this sequence and inaugurated a new era by including midfielder Falcão (Roma-ITA) and forward Dirceu (Atlético de Madrid-ESP) in the list. ).

Coach Tite’s call-up to Qatar has 12 players who play in the Premier League, the most valuable in the world. The country leads this ranking for the third time in a row since 2014. Spain appears far behind in second place, with five names this year.

Manchester United-ING, Real Madrid-ESP and Juventus-ITA are the clubs with the most summons: three athletes each.

With the new list, Flamengo is equal to Vasco on the podium of the clubs that gave the most players to the selection in all the World Cups, with 35 each. Botafogo leads (47), followed by São Paulo (46).

Real Madrid, led by defender Eder Militão and forwards Rodrygo and Vinicius Júnior, becomes the first foreign club to appear in the Top 10 of this list, with 13 players assigned in history. The Spanish team now occupies the ninth place, surpassing Atlético-MG, which has 12.

The call-up has three players revealed by São Paulo (Eder Militão, Casemiro and Antony) and another three by Corinthians (Weverton, Marquinhos and Everton Ribeiro).

América-MG, Flamengo, Fluminense, Internacional and Santos appear next, with two athletes each. Athletico-PR, Atlético-MG, Audax, Avaí, Bahia, Ituano, Juventude, Palmeiras, Ribeirão-POR and RS Futebol Clube close the account, with a professional athlete in each of these clubs.

The team will have in Qatar 12 players born in the state of São Paulo, 5 from Rio de Janeiro and 3 from Rio Grande do Sul. Bahia and Minas Gerais have 2 representatives. Acre and Espírito Santo complete the list, with one each selected.

The “short” of the group is the midfielder Fred (Manchester United-ING), who measures 1.69 m, and the “big guy”, the goalkeeper Alisson (Liverpool-ING), who measures 1.91 m.

The youngest is striker Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal-ING), 21, and the most experienced is full-back Daniel Alves (Pumas-MEX), 39. He will become the oldest Brazilian to defend Brazil in a World Cup, surpassing Djalma Santos, who had 37 at the 1966 World Cup.

Another veteran on the list is defender Thiago Silva (Chelsea-ING). He will be only the eighth Brazilian in history to play four World Cups in his career, after Castilho, Nilton Santos, Djalma Santos, Pelé, Emerson Leão, Cafu and Ronaldo.

Of the 26 called by Tite, ten have already played at least one Cup. In addition to the aforementioned Alisson, Daniel Alves, Thiago Silva and Fred, goalkeeper Ederson (Manchester City-ING), defender Danilo (Juventus-ITA), defender Marquinhos (PSG-FRA), midfielder Casemiro ( Manchester United-ING) and forwards Gabriel Jesus (Arsenal-ING) and Neymar (PSG-FRA).

The main star of the squad, Neymar will become the first Brazilian player after Pelé to compete in three World Cups wearing the legendary number 10 of the team immortalized by the King.