Real Madrid's love affair with Brazilian footballers seems to be slowly coming to an end. At its height, back in Florentino Pérez's last season as club president, the squad boasted five Brazilians in its ranks: Roberto Carlos, Cicinho, Baptista, Robinho and Ronaldo. As of today, with the sale of Julio Baptista to Roma for €12 million, this number now stands at two: Robinho and Marcelo. If you listen to the sports press, and Robinho does end up in Phil Scolari's Chelsea, it could soon be just one.
There could be two factors at play in this changing trend: the most plausible one is that, Marcelo aside, all of the other Brazilian players were signed before Ramón Calderón's ascent to power at Real Madrid. And, apart from Roberto Carlos, they were all signed in Florentino Pérez's era. Calderón has not bothered to hide his dislike for his previous boss and has even gone so far as to accuse him of meddling in the affairs of the club following his resignation. He may be thinking of putting his own stamp on the squad by getting rid of those who arrived under Florentino. The second possible factor is the growing perception at Real Madrid of Brazilians as "problematic". In other words, a
- B/R Ticket Guide
It is no secret that Robinho is unsettled at the club. Marca goes so far as to suggest that he has told Calderón in person that he wants to leave, although the president has so far refused to entertain any offers from Chelsea. This contrasts interestingly with some of his statements during the Cristiano Ronaldo saga to the effect that he would never keep anyone at the club who was unhappy there.
The focus at the club, quite possibly heavily influenced by Bernd Schuster, has now shifted towards players perceived to be more solid, more reliable. This has resulted in an unprecedented number of Dutch players being signed. Van Nistelrooy was signed in 2006 (under Capello), followed by Robben, Sneijder and Drenthe last summer. The recent addition of Van der Vaart to the squad brings the total number up to five. The only nationality with a larger representation is, obviously, Spanish.
The Dutchmen have all, so far, integrated well at the club, and there are no obvious cliques being formed. Without generalising about national traits (a futile exercise, in any case), there is a feeling that these signings are contributing to building a more compact, resilient squad. More of a team than a bunch of talented individuals, in other words. And that can only be a good thing in the long run.
View the original article at the All In White blog.
comments (3) write a comment »
write a new comment
3 months ago
Made this article my pick of the day, brilliantly written and some very good points made. You analyzed what's going at Madrid from a totally original view point considering most of the articles posted up here. Great article!
3 months ago
This is a great article. Full of good observations and well written. I think the Dutch adapt very well to Spanish football and are "safer" picks than the Brazilians who have been much more hit or miss in that some are the best and some are duds.
Great article.
3 months ago
Is it safe to say that the amount of publicity that the "samba" boys get outside the pitch is equal to when they show magic on the pitch? Brazilians will always be known for futbol, but it seems like sometimes that gets overshadowed by what they do when they aren't playing football. I am a little sad about that as I've always been an admirer of the Brazilians not only in Madrid but all over the world. I don't think Calderon will completely close ties with Brazilian players. I just think that at this point in time, the country that has shown great promise and are on the rise are the Dutch and I'm thankful that we have 5 playing for the club. Eventually Real Madrid will go back to bringing in Brazilians as they will always produce great talent. But I definitaly have no complaints with the team this year.
On a side-note, we didn't get Ronaldo which is fine with me as he will eventually join in the future, therefore we are not gonna get rid of Robinho. I'm so tired of hypocrites who hated the whole "slavery" comment when it was focused on Ronaldo, and are now using it as a basis to get Robinho. In my opinion, it was wrong period.
write a new comment