Translated material
From scratch
The Brazilian national team was entrusted with a debutant coach
There has been a change of coach in the Brazilian national team. Which is actually what was expected. It is unlikely that Carlos Alberto Parreira's past merits would have allowed him to remain in his post - the Brazilians' performance at the World Cup can only be called a failure. But the choice of the Brazilian Football Confederation turned out to be more than sensational. The new coach of the five-time world champions is called Carlos Caetano Beledorn Veri.The mysterious senior Carlos Veri is none other than the long-time captain of the Brazilian national team, the 1994 world champion and the second medalist in 1998 Dunga, at one time recognized as perhaps the standard of a defensive midfielder. Dunga was, of course, a wonderful footballer, but the coaching career of 43-year-old Carlos Veri is still a blank sheet of paper.
There were many contenders for the position vacated by Parreira’s departure (and the former mentor went to coach the South African national team). Here are Vanderlei Luschemburgo, Paolo Autori, and Zico, who worked well with the Japanese national team, and several other rather reputable specialists in Brazil. But the choice fell on Dunga, who had never coached anyone before. The midfielder, who played 91 matches for the national team, retired eight years ago, but during this time he never worked anywhere as a coach. He gave interviews and was on the board of the London club Queens Park Rangers, but did not work with any team, even the most seedy one. And then immediately the Brazilian national team.
True, in 2000 Dunga was invited to steer the then four-time world champions, but he refused. The reason for the recusal was not a lack of experience, but contradictions with the leadership of the Brazilian Football Confederation, which turned into hostility. Six years later, apparently, Dunga no longer feels that persistent hostility towards KSE President Ricardo Teixeira and has agreed to lead the country’s national team.
“Being the coach of the Brazilian national team is probably even more difficult than being the president of the country. It is not easy to lead a team in a country where more than a hundred million potential national team coaches live. And everyone considers himself the best specialist in this field,” Carlos Alberto Parreira once said. Now Dunga will have to experience it first hand - what it’s like to occupy such a public position.
Carlos Veri's opening speech was short, but at the same time it contained a small stone in the garden of his predecessor. “When I played in the Brazilian national team, we had one goal - to win every match. This focus on victory is what I want to return,” said the new mentor, clearly hinting at the reasons for the failure of the pentacampeons in Germany.
What were the leaders of Brazilian football guided by when they entrusted the national heritage to an inexperienced coach? Dunga is tasked with creating a new Brazilian national team, ready to compete for a sixth world title. There is a lot of time until the next world championship - four whole years. In this period of time, a new team will be selected, and Dunga will learn. After all, the cautious Germans took a risk, betting first on the inexperienced Rudi Feller, and then on the equally inexperienced Jurgen Klinsmann, and they did not miscalculate. Maybe Dunga will succeed too. Moreover, Mario Zagalo, Carlos Alberto Parreira, and the late Tele Santana highly valued the captain of the Brazilian national team and predicted a brilliant coaching career for him.