Opinion – Marcelo Damato: The coach’s passport is just the tip of the iceberg

In these weeks that remain for the selection of the new coach of the national team, the discussion is about the new candidate for messiah, if the one who will be sanctified or stoned in July 2026 will be a national or a foreigner.

Almost all of Brazil asks for a foreigner, against the position of national coaches — who don’t even have a name. The situation is a reflection of the lack of quality found here.

Since the Parreira, Muricy, Felipão and Luxemburgo quartet, Brazil has only had Tite as a top coach. The others are either burnt out or don’t even have a resume to show. The last three Brazilian Libertadores champions were rejected by their own fans in 2022.

And the current period is nothing new. For decades, people with no experience became technicians, out of friendship with the president or popularity in the media. The now consecrated Zagallo took over the selection that would be three in 1970 at the age of 38 and three years into his career. It had barely been a year since Cláudio Coutinho took over the coaching career when he joined the national team, in 1978. Journalists became coaches overnight. In 1990, Corinthians appointed a former boxing fighter as coach.

While there was room on the field for the best players to shine individually, Brazilian coaches survived. The ten years leading up to the fifth were a kind of swan song.

As time passed, and spaces on the field shortened, the difference in formation became evident to the point that the best in Brazil were surpassed by novice, average and mediocre Europeans, and even by Argentines and Uruguayans.

Abel Ferreira was seven years old as a coach in Europe, without official titles, when he was called by Palmeiras. Here he became a kind of Midas.

If they continue on this path, in a short time Brazilians will be a rarity at the helm of Serie A clubs.

And that’s where the CBF needs to intervene. The entity is not only used to sign contracts and choose national team coaches. Its main function is to develop national football.

In recent years, the entity has started to offer courses and demand certificates from technical candidates. The effect has been almost nil. It is necessary to reformulate the course, with the help of specialists from abroad, and offer scholarships to the best students to train in clubs in Europe.

The course even needs to resolve academic deficiencies of the candidates. It is no longer possible for trainers who are not constantly updated.

And, unless a money shredder has been installed at CBF headquarters, there are plenty of resources for that.

As a comparison, the English federation, over the last 20 years, has redone the training of all coaches in the country, including the base category and schools, in addition to helping to renovate all the lawns where boys practice the sport.

It’s no use resurrecting Cruyff and putting him in the selection if he only has foreigners to talk to. One of the roles of a foreigner in the national team will be to lead the debate about the game.

It is necessary to change the climate of football practiced here. It is necessary to increase the search for excellence, the spirit of competitiveness.

If nothing is done, in January only the person who will be preparing for the stones after the 2026 World Cup will be chosen.