Scouting Notebook: Real Madrid Target Alanzinho Is a Special Midfield Prospect
The recent Under-17 Copa Sudamericano in Chile brought to light a number of South America's most prominent young stars. The finest 16- and 17-year-olds squared off in a series of typically aggressive, flair-filled games, and several players emerged as definitive ones to watch in the near future.
One of those, Brazil's Vinicius Junior, you may already have heard about. He won Player of the Tournament, top-scored with seven goals and sent local commentators crazy with his flicks and tricks. He caught the eye of a number of clubs, and his individual haul of trophies will cement his status as the perceived best prospect to emerge from the tournament.
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But there was another player in that Brazilian side who was just as impressive, though he didn't score quite as many goals or complete quite as many step-overs as Vinicius Junior. Alan, or Alanzinho, as he has somewhat predictably become labelled, pulled the Selecao's strings from midfield and remained an unsolvable problem for every opposing manager he faced.
It came as little surprise in the aftermath of the tournament when ESPN Brasil (h/t AS) revealed Real Madrid's interest in the Palmeiras youth product. Per the report, their plan is to wait until 2019—the year his contract expires—to snare him, thus avoiding a gargantuan €50 million release clause (you have to hand it to Palmeiras; they clearly know a talent when they see one).
Alan spent just shy of a month ripping opposing defences and midfields to shreds at the Copa in Chile. He was the first, crucial part of Brazil's incredibly simplistic but effective route to plundering huge tallies of goals as they waltzed to the finish line.
Playing a hybrid No. 8/No. 10 role in the Selecao's three-man midfield, his incredible passing range and eye-popping agility sprung to the fore. He's the sort some might dismiss as a highlight-reel player or a "Match of the Day player," but when you realise he produces those moments almost every time he touches the ball, it becomes clear he is a special, special prospect.
Manager Carlos Amadeu crafted his midfield around Alan in an attempt to extract the best from him. He also crafted the entire style and attacking approach of the team around Alan and Vinicius Junior in a move that essentially paved the way to automatic success.
Off the ball, Brazil operated in a loose 4-3-3, with Victor Bobsin sweeping up behind Alan and Marcos Antonio. Alan's defensive workload was light—he just had to filter back into a flat line when out of possession—but pulling him deeper allowed them to find him with the first pass out of defence so he could spark counter-attacks.
Time and again, Brazil would break things up and work it to him, and he would either surge forward—displaying a delightful, yet subtle change of direction in tight spaces—or launch a beautifully weighted long pass into the path of one of his runners (usually Vinicius Junior in behind the defence).
Opponents had no way to handle him: If they pushed up, he'd release a runner for a one-on-one; if they sat off, he'd slalom forward and beat players, and if they closed him down, he'd wriggle out of it and exploit the space created.
There was a particular goal Brazil scored, against Colombia, that beautifully summed up the conundrum teams faced when Alan was on the ball. Running upfield on a counter, he drew three reluctant men towards him and then played a pass into the space they'd left. Vinicius Junior finished it off. They made the defenders look like amateur fools.
In prolonged periods of possession, Alan drifted into the No. 10 space, morphing the formation into more of a 4-2-3-1 as Marcos Antonio slid round to partner Victor Bobsin. That allowed Alan to orchestrate the attack from one of the most dangerous areas of the pitch, feeding David Silva-like balls into his striker and wingers.
Fed up and frustrated, teams began fouling him, but that only made things worse. Alan's set pieces are next-level; be it a deep, curling free-kick into the box, an arrowed corner or an attempt on goal from close range, his expertise from a dead ball matches that of his long, raking passes.
He netted two free-kicks in the final Copa Sudamericano game against Chile, caused carnage with a number of accurate deliveries in other games and a pair of his corners were headed against the bar. A flick through his work prior to the tournament proves this was no fluke, either: He buried an absolute beauty into the top corner against Portugal in a tune-up game in December, too.
The ease and fluidity with which Alan plays is not often seen in footballers—let alone 17-year-olds. The Palmeiras midfielder is an enchanting, beguiling prospect; the type you could watch all day and never, ever get bored of.
It's important to accept the perils of scouting at youth tournaments—particularly in South America—as they can be something of a false economy, but Alan looks every bit a world-class playmaker in the making.
His combination of limited defensive skill set and incredible attacking prowess make him the perfect Real Madrid player on paper, but pretty much every top team should be intrigued by his playmaking abilities.
That's high praise, but he's worthy of it.
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