Sao Paulo Youth Training : The Envy Of The World

Joseph Blatter paid a recent visit to Brazil to discuss the 2014 World Cup.

In a meeting with Brazil's President Lula, Blatter spoke of the World Cup, but inevitably the conversation switched to player transfers.

Blatter is one of those who is very concerned about the number of Brazilians playing in European clubs and national squads.

His concern is that one day we could have a World Cup where teams from every country in the world had Brazilians. This may sound outrageous, but in 2006 Brazil had two full squads at the World Cup with the second one distributed amongst countries of the world.

In the last edition of the Euro Cup there were also several Brazilians with, arguably the best player on the winning Spanish team, being Brazilian Marcos Senna.

Sao Paulo coach Muricy Ramalho was quoted as saying recently that this season Sao Paulo will have two alternate players because of an excess of talent.

Apparently the economic woes in Europe has led to a slow down in player purchases and a consequent backlog at Sao Paulo.

Indeed this month a youth tournament was held in Sao Paulo with clubs from all over Brazil taking part while the national under 20 squad was simultaneously playing in the FIFA under 20 tournament in Venezuela.

Yes, Brazil has enough youth talent to field a national youth squad, without many top youth players who are back home playing in a club youth tournament, and without calling on any players who are abroad in the many European clubs.

The 2008 figures on official player transfers have been released with the number listed at over 1200. This figure is slightly above the 1000 average number of players sold annually.

The Sao Paulo youth program has produced hundreds of top players over the years, the likes of world's most valuable player, Kaka.

Adriano would also be amongst the list of big successes as he recently came to the club from Europe in bad shape.

At Sao Paulo, he was trained and disciplined with attention given to his off field behaviour as well. After a relatively good stint at the Libertadores, he was soon back in Europe helping Inter to top their league.

Facilities are also not only limited to Brazilians as clubs and national squads from all over the world are welcome to the State of Sao Paulo in a bid to improve their game.

This month featured visitors like the Angolan club CRD Libolo and the national under 20 Trinidad and Tobago squad.

Trinidad and Tobago head coach, Serbian, Zoran Vranes had this to say, "We had the chance to work at excellent facilities and get some strong competition from the teams we played against here."

He went on to describe the experience at Sao Paulo as, "A valuable training exercise."