I created this thread asking: What happened with players from Estadio do Rio de Janeiro, or the city itself with regards to the Selecao? It seems like the star pool of players from this city has dried out. I noticed only Adriano & Ronaldo were Carioca born players on the WC06 squad. Adriano has really struggled for some time at Inter and hasn't been called up for some time. Some Brazilians have told me that the allure of the renowned Rio nightlife has been a detriment to a lot of players from there becoming successful. Is it that there are currently no "great" players coming up from Rio? Nilton Santos then Zico, then Romario, then Ronaldo. I hope it's only a phase.
Juan, Gilberto, Adriano, Ronaldo and Julio Cesar were on the Selecao and they were all born in Rio, not to mention they all came from Flamengo (with the exception of Ronaldo). To tell you the truth, no, I haven't seen any great players come out of Rio for a while and the nightlife may be part of the problem. To be honest, I haven't seen ANY great players come out from Brasil in some time. I don't see any Ronaldo's, Romario's, or even Rivaldo's. Ronaldinho comes close, but I am not sure if I would say he is a GREAT.
meanwhile in the south.... Fabio Rockemback, Lucio, Nilmar, Daniel Carvalho, Rafael Sobis, Anderson, Ronaldinho "carioca" and many others. I would not blame it on Rio's nightlife, I think the problem there is that the Rio teams have a very poor infrastructure, the stadiums are garbage, the training centers are poor,dirty and trashy so many players don't even want to play there.
Fluminense reveal Marcelo, Carlos Alberto, And have young players who can be great in future, like Lenny, Arouca (one of the best defensive midfileder who i ever see at this age). Vasco will reveal Allan Kardec and Alex in near future, one of the better players in the brazilian youth divisions. Flamnego Have Renato Silva, a great potential player. And Botafogo reopen the youth division project in this year. and i don't think its structure, Much players say the rio team have structure leveled with other brazilians teams, i don't think fluminense loose in structure of youth division to any other team in the world or vasco loose in structure of professional soccer. vasco open this year the youth training fields in metropolitan area of Rio, who will be one of the most modern training center of the world. then, my answer to this question is, lucky, you need luck to create a world top 10 player. santos awaiting 35 years between pelé and robinho.
i think it has a lot to do with the mismanagement of the Rio teams. yeah you have some solid players coming out, but i think it pales in comparison with the players coming out of sao paulo and rio grande do sul. there really hasnt been much consistency in the rio teams. they have the talent, but the consistency just isnt there, and that reflects poorly on the players. potential is definitely there...it's just not getting tapped properly i'd say.
Renato Silva? Considering you like the rival team, I would figure you would get the names right. I am sure you wanted to say RENATO AUGUSTO. Flamengo actually has an excellent crop of youngsters about come out onto the professional ranks soon. Egidio, a promising left back, was sent to Parana on loan because our current squad doesn't have room for him because of the Libertadores. We also have Marcinho, Celio Junior, Hélder (scored 2 goals in his professional debut), Marlon, Marcelo Lomba and Bruno Mezenga who all seem to have promising futures, but we will not know until they play more in the professional team. As far as management is concerned, I do agree to an extent. I don't like how the management treats the youngsters. For example, Flamengo played Bruno Mezenga in a Brasilian league game when he was only 16 years old. I think that is way too young of an age to throw somebody out there.