What the soccer nation thinks of European teams

Sitting in a Sao Paulo sports bar, Mathew sips a cold one and eagerly awaits the start of the Champions league final between Manchester United and Chelsea. He's alone and the bar is almost empty at that time of day as the Brazilian league and Libertadores matches only start much later on.

Being an Australian citizen, he considers the EPL to be the height of soccer and the Champions League the biggest thing worth winning.

He gets a bit excited about the match as it progresses and finally someone comes across and asks who's playing. Irritated, Mathew doesn't even bother to answer. He's upset that in the country of soccer—Brazil—no one seems to really care about a Champions League final, especially with two English teams in there.

When he came to Brazil two years earlier he'd expected to find a country awash with EPL and European football fans as is most of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and more recently North America. He was wrong.

Brazilians are to soccer what Americans are to basketball. They concentrate on their own leagues and pay little attention to what goes on out there. They consider their league to be the best and very often their state championships to be the most important titles worth winning. 

In recent decades the Libertadores has gathered a following and the Intercontinental Cup or FIFA Club World Cup as it is now known is always a keenly watched novelty by some as it usually asserts the mindset that Brazilian soccer is the best, boasting of six different club champions, some with multiple titles, something which no country save Argentina matches.

England has one title with one club, just to put it in perspective.

The only T.V. channels who would dare to show foreign soccer in Brazil are the cable networks. Even these channels heavily advertise the Brazilian Championship, Libertadores, and to a much lesser extent the Champions League.

With the successes of so many Brazilians at Milan and Barcelona, the Champions League has made up some ground and boasted of a tiny following. It was not to be this time around however, much to Mathew's dismay.

One might then question why there are so many Brazilians playing in Europe if the reality is that European soccer is unappreciated. The answer would be the same as why so many Americans play basketball there—money.

The truth is that the Brazilian soccer scene is quite competitive. It's like being an actor in Hollywood and many or most simply do not make the grade. Recent and prominent examples of second rate players from Brazil making it big in Europe would be the likes of Marcos Senna, Pepe, Deco, and Eduardo da Silva.

Of course there are the superstars who go to Europe and a very good reason as to why they make the journey as well is even more money. The reality is that Brazilian clubs are quite comfortable with selling off their top players year after year as in this soccer mad country the new stars never seem to stop coming.

Brazil sells on average 900 players (officially) ever year. In 2007 the figure pushed past 1000 and the 2008 figures are probably even going to be higher.

So, to avoid being caught by surprise like poor old Mathew, visitors to Brazil should expect to find a country pretty much involved in its own soccer. Expect to see spectacular soccer on the beaches, in the streets, indoor courts, and in packed stadiums.

Do not expect to see people walking around in Manchester United jerseys, even though there are a few, like poor old Mathew, who, by the way, is a real person and this is a true story.

He called me up furious about being like a fool in Sao Paulo and asking why we Brazilians are so narrow minded and only watch Brazilian soccer. I told him that it probably had something to do with those five stars on our national kit.