No matter how meticulously a Brazilian coach prepares for the
new season, his plans can be wrecked in an instant by the
international transfer window.
Brazil exported a record 1,085 professional players this year,
according to the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF).
In addition to the traditional destinations such as Spain, Italy
and Portugal, players headed for places as unlikely as Guatemala,
Surinam, Vietnam and Armenia.
The trade is often lucrative for Brazilian clubs and a
successful move can give the players a chance to achieve financial
independence for themselves and their families.
For the coaches of the 20 first division clubs, already working
in one of the most volatile markets in the football world, it is a
major headache, however.
"In the old days, the boy was born and his dream was to play
football and to play for Brazil," said Alexandre Gallo, coach of
first division Figueirense, during an international football forum
in Rio de Janeiro.
"Today, the boy is born and he dreams of becoming a footballer
so he can turn professional and be sold to a club in Europe. The
dream has changed."
The Brazilian season runs from mid-January to early December
while the European transfer window opens in January and again in
July.
This means that most players depart either during pre-season
training or halfway through the Brazilian championship.
"The first thing a coach has to know is the dates of the
international transfer window," Ney Franco, coach of Atletico
Paranaense, told an audience at the same forum.
"No matter how much you work and plan in December, you always
have the risk that two or three players you had counted on will not
be there when pre-season training starts.
"This is a problem for all the Brazilian clubs, even the ones
with the best structure and more money."
Franco said negotiations often went on without the knowledge of
the coach.
"The coach is sometimes the last one to know. The player is
taken out of a training session because he has to sign some
paperwork and when the coach asks what happened, he's told that the
player has been sold.
"The Brazilian championship is at full steam and suddenly the
transfer window opens...and the coach lives with the expectation
that he could lose his best players."
Before the start of the Brazilian championship, the respected
magazine Placar publishes a guide to the tournament complete with
player profiles for all 20 clubs.
Halfway through the championship, the magazine publishes a
second guide because the original is already out of date.
Franco said that even if a player is not sold, there can still
be a negative effect on the team.
"If the player thinks he is going to be sold, his commitment
drops. If the deal falls through, he can get frustrated and his
performances drop anyway," he said.
Gallo said he had been sacked twice in the last three years
after losing his top players.
In 2005, Gallo said he was at Santos when forwards Deivid and
Robinho, who had scored 46 goals between them, left the club. The
latter joined Real Madrid and is now one of the world's top
players.
Santos immediately suffered a dip in form and Gallo was
sacked.
This year, he was at Internacional when it parted company with
17-year-old Alexandre Pato, who left for AC Milan.
Internacional struggled, Gallo was sacked and the player himself
was shunted into the reserves on arriving in Italy.
(Agencies via Shanghai Daily December 20, 2007)