Time to start talking about the 2030 cycle, which will be Ancelotti's full four-year cycle, barring some big surprise or a poor Copa América. I thought about calling it "rumo ao Hexa" again because, what else do you call a Brazilian cycle for the last 24 years? But not only am I now in the camp that thinks it's silly to just repeat that all the time, but I also wonder, with all the FIFA news this week, who knows if there will even be another World Cup! In all seriousness though, it's a good time to start the thread because today Ancelotti received ESPN Brasil for a first interview since the World Cup and before the September call-ups. Here is the interview: He talks about what went wrong against Norway (the shape of the team and losing control around the second half hydration break), about Neymar and other things. The most notable news from the interview is that he has indicated Danilo, Alex Sandro, Casemiro and Neymar are the kind of players he considers will not be part of the new cycle. Marquinhos and Alisson on the other hand will still have their usefulness. I have bookmarked several articles and videos since the end of the World Cup and will use this first page of the thread as a sort of info-dump. Before that, I'll list the upcoming schedule as well.
One big schedule change for this cycle is that instead of 2 international breaks in September and October there will be one longer one. It will start later and last longer, allowing for up to 4 matches. With that in mind, the next year for the national team will be friendlies only, unless CONMEBOL starts qualifiers early. I expect the convocações will follow the recent pattern of being made close to the break. September 21 international break September 25 vs. Australia September 29 vs. Australia October 3 vs. India November 9 international break two matches TBC March 22 international break two matches TBC June 7 international break two matches TBC CONMEBOL has not determined how the qualifiers will be played, but they're expected to begin in the September 2027 international break. From September 2027 to June 2028 the schedule will be similar (but probably with qualifiers, not friendlies). The June 2028 break will begin on May 29, and will be followed by Copa América.
Here are some post-World Cup articles. Summaries of who might be on the radar or expected to pop up. As ever, there are probably players not even on this list that will play a part. https://ge.globo.com/futebol/copa-d...em-no-radar-no-proximo-ciclo-da-selecao.ghtml https://www.uol.com.br/esporte/fute...formulacao-que-comeca-na-super-data-fifa.ghtm And a couple of videos on how Brazil rebuilt before or how we might rebuild now:
Interestingly, CBF did show some interest in learning about Clairefontaine while the World Cup was still going on: https://www.uol.com.br/flash/?c=64a73ca8f7f806c34e475a075f87bf420260708 To be clear, there is no magic formula CBF can copy and paste. If they ever come up with a plan it needs to work for our specific context. https://www.uol.com.br/esporte/fute...onho-e-a-realidade-da-selecao-brasileira.ghtm But it is good to see that they look at other examples. Whether that will lead to some long-term project is another thing entirely. And whatever happens, in two years we will probably have a new CBF president and it will probably be the son of Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes, who has been one of the behind the scenes powers for a while now. He is a lawyer, he also runs the IDP (group that manages CBF Academy) and is the VP of the Federação Mato-grossense de Futebol. UOL has a subscriber only article on how he came to be. Here is a video from UOL about it:
Samir Xaud does have support in CBF, but during the World Cup it seems that the powers that be tried to bring him down a peg, by leaking some compromising info (photos of him with his mistress in New York during the World Cup, while his wife was in Orlando). After the World Cup, the CBF brass focused more on how to build, than worrying about the political fallout. https://www.uol.com.br/esporte/fute...pos-copa-com-apoio-de-federacoes-a-samir.ghtm Two objectives were reportedly set: Win Copa América Win the qualifying campaign https://ge.globo.com/futebol/copa-d...encer-a-copa-america-e-as-eliminatorias.ghtml Whether those are all or nothing objectives, I'm not sure. But it seems they were set to "win" as opposed to just "do well", partly because we were eliminated earlier than expected in the World Cup, so CBF wants a strong rebound.
This is a video I found very interesting: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DaptHmRDhcI/ It's Rafaela Pimenta, one of the biggest agents in football (she inherited Mino Raiola's clients after working under him, when he pass away in 2022). Haaland, for example, is one of her clients. She is Brazilian, but I would not call her a "Brazilian agent" because she is part of the European scene. She offers a good perspective on how others see Brazilian players today. And it's not great. She also talks about developing players in Brazil. Since the World Cup, there have been many articles about development and what has changed in Brazil. There was even a major article about how the evangelical movement in Brazil has affected players. There are a number of cultural and social things that influence how players change and develop. I think there is some truth to the ideas out there, but those are not things the football world can change, they have to work within that reality. In the end, those things make for interesting sociological topics, but when it comes to football, the things we can control are much more immediate, whether they're "humility" as she puts it, or agents focusing on career development, and so on.
And finally (for now), Globo's first article since Ancelotti returned, about the beginning of the work towards the September friendlies: https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...to-para-primeiros-amistosos-apos-a-copa.ghtml Expect a call-up around September 14 for these 3 matches. Ancelotti emphasized the midfield a lot when he talked about what needs to improve, so that would be the area where I might expect most "experiments". Maybe with the new format, and the need to build anew I'll get to see what I always hope for, which is bigger squads, so we can get an idea of who they want beyond the 26. We'll see. September 14 is still 47 days away.
Finishing first in the qualifiers shouldn't be a big ask sense Argentina and Uruguay auto. Imo, let's get some new blood in there.
Here is Ancelotti's interview with Globo: https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...eteranos-ideia-e-botar-uma-nova-geracao.ghtml
English translation from Google. I found that very interesting and he's right. If we want to see that classic possession based games, they have to develop the players for that kind of game like Spain does with their midfielders. You can't blame ancelotti for playing to the teams strength, obviously not cutting him a break from his mistakes against Norway.
Gilmar Mendes is a potential target of the Global Magnitsky act that sanctioned Justice Moraes last year. If that happens him and his instutite will be banned from making financial transactions with any financial instutition in the western world( the SWIFT system). And CBF themselves could be a target of secondary sanctions of they insist in doing business with him. The Trump admin has backed off temporarily but they will come back with full force once the presidential elections are over. So Mendes and his family will go away, and we find ourselves in the same situation we were in from 2012-2018 when Ricardo Teixera and everybody from his outfit (Marin, Del Nero) got chased off due to feuding with the United States. Mendes has already started bracing for the sanctions by divorcing his wife last year, which many believe is an attempt to shield her from sanctions. CBF can't get a break because it's always controlled by shady people. The good news is that I sense FIFA worried about the current state of the Selecao Brand, and they may even get more directly involved in the process of revamping out football.
A big thank you to Ombak for posting these interesting links. The panel debate with Rafaela Pimenta and the UOL video about Gilmar Mendes' son were very illuminating. I've read this forum for many years, but I've never posted here before. I had to register a profile, so that I could write this. Thank you for the effort you put in.