Opinion – Marcelo Damato: In the Brazilian national team, a doctor needs a sponsor

In Brazil, coaches are replaced almost from Cup to Cup — Tite is one of the rare exceptions. But the heads of the national team’s medical department remain. In the last 14 World Cups, there have only been four. Of these, two have a direct family connection.

Lídio Toledo stayed from 1970 to 1978 and from 1990 to 1998, six Cups. The equally carioca José Luis Runco stayed from 2002 to 2014, four World Cups. Miners Neylor (1982 and 86) and Rodrigo Lasmar (2018 and 22), father and son, complete the list.

During this period, to reach the top post, three conditions have been mandatory: being an orthopedist, having a connection with a big club and having a strong sponsor. In this century, having a previous career at the CBF became a requirement as well.

Occupying this position has an immediate benefit: being the natural candidate to perform surgeries on the main players of the national team, should the need arise.

Until the 1990s, while most of the players called up played in Brazil, the national team was the target of an intense dispute between Rio and São Paulo (the other states were basically despised).

The quality of players and coaches was praised or questioned based on a fundamental point: which state they were operating in.

As the CBF is located in Rio and, since its foundation, all the presidents had been Cariocas, from the heart or soul, the technicians were almost always from Rio — and they endorsed the doctors.

Considering the World Cups from 1970 onwards, there is a notable coincidence between the roots of the coach and the doctor. With Zagalo (at the time he still used an “l”), an Alagoan by birth, but with a Carioca soul and Coutinho, the doctor was Lídio Toledo.

When Telê Santana took over in 1981, the doctor became Neylor Lasmar, a miner like Telê. The coach, a former Fluminense winger and Brazilian champion as coach of Atlético-MG, was branded a “paulista” by Rio journalists, because of a single job in São Paulo, at Palmeiras, in 1979-80.

After Telê, the cariocas returned: Lazaroni (1990), Parreira (1994) and Zagallo (with two “l”s, 1998). And again there was Lídio Toledo. The veteran doctor only left after his performances were criticized in the 1998 World Cup, especially in the cases of Romário, who would be cut, and Ronaldo, on the day of the final.

From then on, the coach’s sponsorship ceased to be decisive. When Luiz Felipe Scolari took over, the first of the “gaúcho” phase of coaches that lasts until today, Runco was already a doctor for the main team. He had started in the national team in 1985.

Runco started a new phase in its sector. The DM now has more autonomy to incorporate physicians and choose successors. Runco has survived three coaching changes. After Scolari came Parreira (2006), Dunga (2010) and Scolari (2014). It only came out when the resounding failure in the dreamed Cup in Brazil caused the dismissal of almost the entire technical commission.

Runco left, but appointed his first assistant to the spot. Rodrigo Lasmar joined Runco’s team in 2003, aged 31, and was promoted to boss at 42. At 50, he already has 19 years with the CBF and five Cups under his belt, two as a starter.

After the Cup, Tite will leave. But, save for one issue still unknown, Lasmar will remain the most powerful doctor in Brazilian football.