Opinion – Tostão: I strongly believe in the union of athletes with complementary characteristics

A World Cup ambassador in Qatar said that homosexuality is mental damage. Ignorance and prejudice have no limits. FIFA, which usually rules the host countries during the World Cup, as happened in Brazil, needs to speak out against this absurdity. People going to Qatar need to respect the country’s customs and rules, and hosts need to respect human beings.

Some very important holders of the main teams are out of the Cup because of injuries, such as Kanté and Pogba, from France, and Lo Celso, from Argentina. Brazil should not have any embezzlement. This increased the price of the Brazilian team in polls and betting exchanges.

I believe much more in the union of players with complementary characteristics than in training time and friendlies. The fanciful and creative Pogba and the tireless Kanté, who is everywhere on the pitch, make an excellent duo. They will be missed. In Argentina, the skilful and inventive midfielder Lo Celso was the main initiator, collaborator, coming from behind, for Messi’s plays, from the opposing midfielder to the goal.

Great duos have excelled in the past. When I was ten years old, before the 1958 World Cup, I saw Coutinho and Pelé, two young men, at Independência, in Belo Horizonte. A show. They tabulated in short spaces, in front of the area. They communicated by looking and by the movement of their legs. One thought the other’s thoughts.

Just before the 1970 World Cup debut, Zagallo called me and said I would be the starter. He asked me to play in front of Pele and Jairzinho. I told him that I would act like Evaldo did at Cruzeiro, who played in front of me and Dirceu Lopes. I was convinced that the team, with two top scorers, Pelé and Jairzinho, needed a guarding striker, facilitator, not a typical finishing striker.

A few days ago, a reader I met on my walks told me that I was stopped by Zagallo, when he took over from Saldanha, because I had praised Dom Hélder Câmara and given an interview to Pasquim against the dictatorship. That’s not why Zagallo stopped me. It is the current, paranoid and biased thinking that we live. Zagallo thought the team needed a classic striker, like Roberto or Dario.

Paquetá and Neymar completed each other in moments of some friendly matches, with short and accurate exchanges of passes towards the goal. Tite is having trouble scaling them together, as he would have to take a striker or midfielder Fred, to play with just one midfielder, or take Vinicius Junior, with Paquetá playing from the left to the middle. Vinicius Junior is today one of the great strikers in the world and cannot be left out.

Whatever the lineup and tactical design, I would like to see Neymar closer to the area, to dribble, make decisive passes and score goals. If he retreats too far to set up the plays, he will stay away from the goal and still run the risk of trying to dribble and be disarmed on the field of Brazil.

I hope that Neymar does not repeat the behavior of the last World Cup, when he simulated, rolled on the lawn and complained aggressively, a ridiculous theater that generated worldwide antipathy. At PSG, Neymar has not had this behavior, although he still receives many yellow cards for complaining about opponents’ fouls. Tite, with rigor, sincerity and frankness, has to talk to him.