Brazil: Just How Do They Do It?

Only weeks have passed since we all heard the news that Socrates, the Brazilian legend, sadly passed away and over that course, we decided to briefly reflect on his career and the ever-present footballing prowess of the country he so dearly loved and captained during the 1982 World Cup.

Many of us will know of Brazil’s footballing greats that have played the “Beautiful Game” over the past few decades. The nation’s footballing history is steeped in success and the players to have played for the Samba Stars are more than just household names… they are true greats. However, not all of Brazil’s greats were as respected and active off the field, as they were on it.

Within the space of a week, the footballing world was struck by the tragic deaths of Gary Speed and Socrates. Many may have expected Socrates to pass away at an early age due to his excessive drinking and smoking habits which have been the cause of his hospital admissions over the past few years. We want to put that aside and focus on his achievements as a player, a person and the root of Brazil’s brilliance.

Despite not being one of the first names to pop in your head when you think about the past Brazilian greats, Socrates was widely idolised and praised during his time as a professional football player. He was a technically gifted player renowned for his passing ability, vision, game reading and the iconic beard, hair and headband combo. Socrates also added goals to his impressive gameplay: he notched 22 goals in his 60 appearances in a Brazil shirt. During his time in the national team, Socrates also captained Brazil in the 1982 World Cup – an integral member of that famous team dubbed the “Best team to never win the World Cup”.

Despite his success as a footballer, Socrates was also a qualified doctor – a rare feat for any professional. What makes this more astounding is the fact that he achieved this whilst playing football! In addition to this, Socrates founded the Corinthians Democracy movement and publicly sought to overthrow the then-ruling military government for the greater good of Brazil. This was simply unheard of: a football player who was a qualified doctor of medicine who publicly campaigned to oversee democracy instilled in Brazil. This was remarkable. The man was a great intellect who inspired many to achieve what they desired and he cared for his country and people as much as he did for the “Beautiful Game”. Socrates is the epitome of that phrase and he will live long in memory for his playing style and achievements off the football pitch. Thank you, Dr. Socrates.

Socrates is one of the many names that people associate with the Samba Stars, but just how do Brazil produce talent such as Socrates every year without fail? This is what we are going to shed some light on today, as we attempt to unearth the secret behind Brazil’s success which establishes their position as the most feared and successful national team throughout the world.

Conquering the famed World Cup five times is a major feat and as a result, Brazil are always regarded as one of the favourites to lift the coveted trophy every four years. Everyone will tell you that Brazil would be one of teams they would love to see their country beat for a number of reasons. However, the talent produced by Brazil creates a formidable and imposing team to challenge and more often than that, Brazil will triumph in any international fixture. Regardless of the fact that Brazil have under performed and fallen short of their usual expectations in the past two World Cups, the team sheets are just overloaded with some of the world’s best players. Cast your mind back to 2002: Brazil won their fifth title in Japan/S.Korea with iconic players such as Cafu, Edmilson, Kleberson, Lucio, Rivaldo,  Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho and the formidable Ronaldo. Fast forward four years to Germany and we are presented with a very different team with newcomers such as Adriano, Dida, Fred, Kaka and Robinho making their World Cup debuts. The squad still possessed the ability to go all the way and wrap up an unprecedented sixth title, if it were not for tactical failures.

2010 saw no places in the team for the likes of Ronaldo and Ronaldinho as players such as Alves, Elano, Fabiano, Melo and Ramires tasted their first World Cup action. Once again, Brazil crashed out in the quarter-finals despite the fact that they had the ability to go all the way. Now, since lifting the World Cup in 2002, Brazil have produced fine talent year-in, year-out and assembling a suitable team for the World Cup has not been an issue. Many countries who lift it one year would struggle to repeat the feat in the next tournament or even for many years to come due to a lack of quality when the issue of composing a winning team arises. There have been times in our footballing past when some of the best players have hailed from countries like Hungary for example. They had a formidable team in the 50′s when Puskas was arguably the best player of his generation and under his performances, they even managed to reach the 1954 World Cup final! This is a prime example of a country who has produced stellar talent in the past, but have since then failed to deliver any talent even close to that level.

This has happened numerous times before and even World Cup winning teams (Italy 2006) would struggle to replicate their achievements in the next tournament(s) as age has caught up to them and a lack of young, prestigious talent impacts and impedes the team’s endeavours. Brazil have – safe to say – never had an issue such as this. You look back on their footballing history and you see the names of Carlos Alberto, Cafu, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Zico, Socrates, Jairzinho, Dunga, Romario and not forgetting Pele, engraved into the books of success and you wonder how on earth Brazil have replicated this every single decade without fail? I mean, the hottest names in the transfer market more often than not turn out to be Brazilians! Even now, Ganso and Neymar are arguably two of the hottest properties in football. So many other countries must be sat scratching their heads asking themselves “How on earth do they do this?” We’ll tell you how they do this.

Poverty.

We know it sounds absurd, but it’s true. Just think about it: here you have a developing country – the fifth (isn’t that a coincidence?) largest country in the entire world – which (unfortunately) has more than its fair share of poverty. Everyone knows of the “iconic” favelas in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, which is home to the less fortunate citizens of Brazil. Crime is extremely high within these favelas and to evade a life of poverty, these kids kick a ball around the streets every day of the week. They literally pour their hearts and hopes out into kicking this little ball around the street. What inspires them even more is when they discover that their Brazilian heroes were also born into a life of poverty and football was their saviour too. This coupled with the fact that football is an unofficial religion within Brazil (and the success of the national team has done wonders too, might I add) fabricates a unique footballing system where the kids play football for the sheer love, joy, passion and freedom it brings to them – which of course presents an array of talent for club scouts and everything beyond that is self-explanatory and also written in our footballing history books.

There you have it: the answer to Brazil’s unprecedented perpetual success takes its form in the shape of poverty. With a population of over 192 million, you have constant flow of young talent that play the game to escape a life of misery, hardship, indigence and more importantly, because they generally and truly love football. This characteristic cannot be instilled into any kid at will and we have to take our hats (0r boots) off to these kids for their dedication and determination to rise to the top.