The Brazilian league has some of these players. But they're not that great. Brazil and Argentina have become breeding farms for European top teams. And now that they can poach kids from age 15 or 18 or 20, they don't really care. They produce players that Europe wants. Unless some favela kids start coming up again, there's no chance for Brazil to recover. They need to find their identity.
Instead they're creating a player pool for the Europe's richest teams and they're stuck with the mediocrity that Europe's modern game requires. And they're not going to be better than Europeans in their own game.
You can still see how a player like Neymar can be dominant (despite his theatrics, which are overstated but never cry wolf as I mentioned earlier) but there's not enough Neymars out there. They used to have 5-10 of them within each generation. Some didn't make it far due to mentality issues, but still. Now the most talented players from Brazil that can play at a top level are:
- Neymar
- Douglas Costa
- Philippe Coutinho
- Lucas Moura
- Willian
And Lucas Moura is someone you can expect to see retiring when he's 30 because he gave up the sport before even trying. And other than Neymar, no one else is a leading player of a strong team.
Brazil, like most countries and teams, are affected by this lack of foreigner rule in Europe. A Brazilian with a Spanish or Portuguese or Italian passport can play anywhere in Europe now. Before, he only could play in his 2nd nation and if they weren't good enough, they wouldn't go to a decent team. The football academies have taken over the world and everyone is mass produced. It's all generic now. Brazil is trying to do this as well and they cannot keep up. Too many teams, not enough families can afford this, limited chances for poor kids who may have more flair, talent. But it's not just that. The foreigners rule has allowed teams to be greedy. They can sign 6 Spanish players, 5 Portuguese players, 3 Italians, 4 French, 8 Swedish and then still have room for 3 or 5 non-EU players. So they go and sign Brazilians or Argentines or African players just because they can. Before that, they had to be very careful at who to sign. It'd be 3 or 5 of anyone of those 30ish players. So money wins and Brazilians don't really have the money to compete. Or the allure.
You could tell the difference between England, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Holland, Russia, Sweden etc just by looking at them play. Now they're all trying to be the same. Some are the same. And instead of battling against this, Brazil is also trying to be part of this. You should always look to copy elements of someone else that may help you, like Brazil did with their defence and it's been fixed since 1990 (with the hiccup of 2014 with players like David freaking Luiz who was better at scoring goals than defending and fucking Dante starting).. But then you look at Brazil and it all feels wrong. Where is the #10? Where is the #9? The last great Brazil was in 2006 and everyone was out of form, with an overweight Ronaldo being the most dangerous player of the whole team. Adriano, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Robeto Carlos, Cafu, Emerson.. all out of form. It was pathetic really, you were expecting them to go very far or all the way.
So Brazil has stopped producing great strikers. Or great playmakers. They still have a few fancy players, but that's about it. Fancy, yet borderline useless. They used to have strikers that were Ballon D'Or level. They used to play with 2 up front. Now they even played a fucking 4-2-3-1... Same in 2014, with fucking Fred being their striker. At least Fred had a goal.
Brazil has guys like Hulk, Fred, Paulinho and Luiz Gustavo for years. That's a big problem. And the biggest problem is that their rivals are also suffering from this but at least they still have 2-3 world class players with each generation (Chile, Uruguay, Colombia etc). Brazil and Argentina used to have 6-7 of them, now they barely have 3.
Wow, where to begin. Favela kids, "the mediocrity that Europe's modern game requires", more players playing in Europe yet Brazilians are hurt cause they somehow produce less talent this way, "generic" players!?
It's just the game has changed - better academies, better coaching, better players everywhere you look. There are no one-dimensional poachers now, or lazy creative AMs that do nothing else than through balls and just exist on the pitch to do solely that. Those aren't needed cause they're inadequate. This is why the best midfielders can do everything - attack, defend, pass, run non-stop; goalkeepers are now required to have good footwork and even be able to spread the ball, wingers are expected to help out in defense, strikers are expected to be able to combine with other players and set up goals as well, defensive midfielders are expected to be able to make a through ball and so on.
There are no shitty roll-over teams anymore, quality is just higher in 2018 than it was ten or twenty years ago. This is why Iceland can get a draw against Argentina, packed full of talent. It's just that talent isn't that important anymore, all players are "good" nowadays - physically, tactically, mentally, technically. Discipline, teamwork and intelligent coaching differentiate good teams from mediocre ones.
Coaches are better equipped - they have superior data gathering tools (like the bras players wear), superior video capture, archiving and analysis; superior statistical analysis; superior fitness and coaching staff, superior training grounds etc. Kids from favelas will do shit when they measure up against a well-prepared academy product, yeah they might have some outrageous innate talent, but only that leads you nowhere in today's game.
This is why Pele or Maradona simply can't be better than the best modern day players, this is a laughable presumption. Literally, every OTHER player right now that plays with or against Messi or CR is better. It's an entirely different playing field than it was. This is why you can't just rely on pure talent anymore like many of the past stars did. If you would bring prime Maradona to EPL now he would be nullified instantly. He would still be an amazing player, but he would find it very hard to do outrageous stuff. The gap has been significantly closed between an average and an extraordinary player.
You're saying Brazil used to have 5-10 great players each generation, then you're going ahead and listing five super talented attackers they have yourself. And there are also Miranda, Casemiro, Firmino, Alisson, Marcelo... Again, it's not about players, it's always been about how those players work as a team, especially in international tournaments.
Brazil that "stopped producing great strikers" - there aren't many great out and out "strikers" in today's game anyway. This shit is cyclical and random. Where's all the great Italian players I might ask, where's all the amazing Dutch players? And again, Brazil has a pretty amazing squad, it's not about that. Same goes for Argentina, but they clearly suffer from other factors, such as their corrupt FA, bad influences, internal fighting and inadequate coaching.
Anyway, it's a very complicated matter, but to simplify things - Brazil just aren't currently among the top teams and it's not a matter of some conspiracy bullshit you're trying to make it out to be.
