Defenders from Serie A for Brazil: under the 2022 World Cup or to blow the nose of Italy

Before the next world championship to be held in Qatar this year, Brazil’s five-time world champion team is gearing up to play the final two friendly matches that will help head coach Tita finally decide on her world championship application.

The Brazilians will play against the teams of Ghana and Tunisia on 23 and 27 September in the French Le Havre and Paris, respectively. For these matches, Tite has already called 26 players – enough to be allowed to declare to participate in the final part of the World Cup in Qatar. The main “highlight” of the current choice of the Selesao mentor is the invitation of two defenders playing in Italy Serie A – Gleison Bremer, 25, from Juventus, and Roger Ibanez, 23, from Rome. Both have not previously been selected under the Brazilian national team banner, and Bremer has not even played in his homeland’s youth teams and has only played a few matches for the Ibanez U-23 Olympic team.

His appearance on the list of two completely new defenders for Selesao in Brazil was seen by many as proof that Tite did not have a clear vision of which defender he would take to Qatar. Yes, the main selection of a mentor with the highest probability will be the usual key figures – Marquinhos, 28, of Paris Saint-Germain, and Thiago Silva, 37, veteran of Chelsea. The 24-year-old representatives of Real Madrid Eder Militao are almost arguably considered the closest substitute, but will be fourth on the list, as at least four central defenders must be taken to the World Cup – two for two. every position?..

Six months ago, Brazil had no doubt that the fourth center in the group of lucky ones to go to Qatar would be Gabriel Magalhães, 24, of London’s Arsenal, who has been a regular at his team’s camp recently. However, Tite’s frankly unexpected decision to seek out and evaluate the talents of Bremer and Ibanez on the eve of the 2022 World Cup puts Gabriel’s trip to Qatar into question.

However, there is another question – why on the eve of the world championship Tite decided to return to the services of the “Italian couple”, and not Rodrigo Caio from Flamengo, Felipe Monteiro from Atletico Madrid or Leo Ortiz from Red Bull. Bragantino, who was called to the camp of the Brazilian national team during the World Cup selections? Moreover, in the current decision of Selesao mentor – the desire to find a reliable center to replace the defensive leaders of the team, or the desire to blow the nose of the Italian officials who have naturalized the Brazilians more than once, and successfully flirt with them for Azzurra?

Bremer has been playing in Italy Serie A for over four years and Ibanez came to the Apennines in January 2019 and has since managed to play for Atalanta and Roma. In May of this year, authoritative publication La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Bremer, who was named the best defender of Serie A in the 2021/22 season, may soon be eligible to play in Italy. The wife of Brazilian-born but European ancestral football player Deborah Claudino applied for Italian citizenship, opening up the possibility of a similar decision for Bremer himself in the future. The wife of the center of Juventus is back (the football player moved from Turin in the summer to the Turin club for 41 million euros) as soon as he receives an Italian passport, he will be able to apply for citizenship of this European country.

The development of events was actively observed by the head coach of the Italian national team Roberto Mancini, who was aware of his situation (remember, Azzurra was unable to participate in the second consecutive World Cup, which had never happened before in its history ) especially since both Brazilians were highly respected by experts. , it is unlikely to distribute shots worth it. For example, according to the Wyscout index, Ibanez is fourth on the list of the best defenders in the current Serie A draw, and Bremer is ninth. And on the WhoScored portal, neither Brazilian defender has left the field this season with a score of less than 6.0.

In June, journalists directly asked Bremer about the possibility of playing for the Italian national team, and Bremer made it clear that he was ready for such a step. True, he made a reservation – they say, if it turns out to be unnecessary at home …

“Of course my dream is to play for the Brazilian national team, but if I don’t get the opportunity one day and Italy gives it to me then I’ll play for Italy, it’s okay.” said.

The situation is similar in Ibanez. Last year, he commented on the information about the possibility of playing for the Italian national team, despite the fact that Brazil submitted the documents to the relevant authorities to obtain the citizenship of this country and even received the necessary document.

“I was born in Brazil and I feel like a Brazilian. I want to play for selesao but we’ll see what happens because I have Italian and Uruguayan passports so I’ll wait for someone to call me. Football has changed, I talked about it with the “Brazilian players” of the Italian national team. Rafael Toloy my friend was my starting point when I moved to Atalanta. We’ll see what happens,” Ibanez said.

These messages are clearly stuck in the coaching staff of the Brazil national team. Although Tite has already announced that he is retiring from the Selesao camp after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar ends, the 61-year-old does not care what kind of legacy he will leave behind. They write with full force that in Brazil, Ibanez and Bremer’s current struggle at the five-time world title spot is Tite’s work for the future, because Thiago Silva is about to end his international career and the defender is back. On the contrary, Roma and Juventus are only on the way to the top.

In addition, it is worth considering the fact that Bremer and Ibanez are the main players in their clubs – they are by no means ordinary teams in the Italian championship. Gleison, who played 33 games for Turin in Serie A last season, played 7 games for Juventus this season. For the third year in a row, Roger has the status of a key defender in 34 games in his last Italian championship in Rome, and has now played in 7 of 7 games.

Even for a country rich in football talent like Brazil, it is obvious that it is very unforgivable to cast aside so many qualified personnel. So the current Tite pick is quite logical, and if Bremer and Ibanez prove themselves in the next two practices, it won’t come as a surprise to anyone to include them in the deadline for the 2022 World Cup. Moreover, in words, both literally dream of performing in a Selesao T-shirt …

Direct speech:

Gleison Bremer: “I am very happy to have the opportunity to be a part of the Brazilian national team. I know the responsibility of the person who wears this shirt. It is the dream of every kid. There are only 50 days left to the World Championships and I will fight for my place. I will do my best to show Professor Tita that I can do it. Italy’ “We have very tactical football and have great defenders like Maldini, Nesta and others. The homeland of the defenders is Italy. It helps a lot. Italy is one of the best schools for defenders.”

Roger Ibanez: “The first day in the national team is an indescribable feeling of being around high-performing athletes who set an example for us. It’s inexplicable. It’s like it was the first day of school. The players on the team welcomed me so warmly, everyone smiled and greeted. It’s only been half a day and I was incredibly happy already. Still “When I was playing for Fluminense, I was asked what kind of defender I admire. And one of the people I mentioned was Thiago Silva. And now I’m with him, I work every day. I’m happy to learn from him.”