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Desolation in South America as talent drains away
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While Europe’s leading clubs continue to top up their stocks of foreign talent, the situation with their South American counterparts is one of desolation.
Being successful in South America simply speeds up the inevitable process of seeing your best players abandon ship.
Three months ago, Colombian provincial club Cucuta were enjoying an unprecedented run in the Libertadores Cup, where they reached the semi- finals before finally being overcome by eventual champions Boca Juniors.
Having since lost key players such as goalkeeper Robinson Zapata and striker Blas Perez, they now find themselves back in the old routine, 13th in the 18-team Colombian championship.
In Argentina, Racing Club supporters are still seething over the departure of 20-year-old midfielder Maximiliano Moralez, sold to FC Moscow just weeks after playing for the Argentina team which won the Under-20 World Cup in Canada.
Over in Brazil, Internacional supporters had only eight months to enjoy the talents of striker Alexandre Pato, who has been sold to AC Milan at the age of 17.
Pato cannot actually play for Milan until he turns 18 in September, so he has returned to Brazil to keep training, and the fact he is unlikely to get straight into the first team makes the move doubly premature.
This is, perhaps, the most exasperating aspect of the great talent drain.
Having left their South American clubs before they are barely out of their nappies, the players are then left to wither on the substitutes bench in Europe. It is a trend which is ruining South American soccer and there seems no way to reverse it.
Brian Homewood, Rio de Janeiro
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The Wall
Club management surely need to take a large part of the responsibility for this ‘talent drain’. They are clearly not investing the money they receive for these players from European clubs in developing new talent.
There has always been and there will always be a pecking order of clubs, and those which can afford the players will continue to buy rather than nurture talent. South American clubs maybe need to take a leaf out of Ajax’s book and follow their example. Year after year they sell their promising youngsters to richer clubs and year after year they seem to produce more.
Well, the production line seems to be never ending at least. You still wonder where all the money goes, though. It seems the agents and players themselves are getting a large cut of the big deals.
Its not so much that they have just STARTED this trend, its what South America has done for years. Stars like Guillermo Schelotto who were lifers in S. America are a needle in a haystack.
The leagues in South and Central America are in it to make money, and secondly, to win it. They are what is known as “Developmental Leagues.” I love Boca Juniors, but facts remain – if they have a star (Messi) and someone wants millions for em, well, off to greener pastures you go!
And as a developmental league, their manufacturing of the next “great thing” is heightened since they are constantly scouting (from the ages of 8 and up!) for new talent, and are always willing to put youngins through the talent process to eventually introduce them to the league, and perhaps, to the world.
This is not really news. Its what these leagues do.
Yes, South American clubs have been selling their top players for years. The difference is that, until a few years ago, the players at least used to hang around for a while before moving to Europe. Robinho, for example, spent three years with Santos before his move to Real Madrid but nowadays European clubs are pouncing for 12 or 13 year-olds. The trick is to get a job for the boy’s father, so that the boy goes as a “consequence” of the move. In this case, the club gets nothing at all.