Bragantino challenges giants with aggressive play and young people – 11/10/2023 – Sport

With the advantage of still leader Botafogo melting away, the Brazilian Championship reaches its final stretch with six contenders for the title. Among them, only Red Bull Bragantino is from the interior, does not have a mass fan base and has never won the tournament.

Fourth placed, the team from Bragança Paulista, 85 km from the capital, has 58 points, just one less than the Rio team, its opponents this weekend — both have 32 games played. Grêmio and Palmeiras each have 59 points, but have already played 33 matches.

In this weekend’s round, the Lone Star club could fall from the top for the first time since taking the lead on April 30. Palmeiras and Grêmio, in addition to Bragantino himself, have the possibility of taking the lead. Bragantino faces Botafogo at 4pm on Sunday (12), at the Nabi Abi Chedid stadium, in Bragança.

Not even coach Pedro Caixinha denies that Massa Bruta, as the team is known in the city, has the ambition to surprise the big boys. Until recently, his speech was about fighting game by game, aiming for a place in the Libertadores.

Last Wednesday (8), however, the possibility of taking over the leadership of Nacional made the coach change his tone. His players did not deal well with the moment of pressure, performed poorly and were defeated by São Paulo, 1-0.

“So we have to manage expectations very well,” said the Portuguese coach after the game. “Whether you like it or not, there was this big emotional side, because the team, even if it was for an hour or a night, could lead.”

The coach, who has worked for clubs in nine countries, knew when he was hired that he would have to pay greater attention to emotional issues. Since 2019, when it became part of the Red Bull club franchise, Bragantino has received millionaire contributions to invest in young talents with potential for development and possible resale.

It’s no surprise that Massa Bruta has the youngest squad among the 20 teams in Series A, with an average age of 23.8 years old. The number is considerably lower than those of the other contenders for the title: Botafogo (27.8), Palmeiras (25.8), Grêmio (27.1), Flamengo (26.7) and Atlético Mineiro (28.7).

Technical coordinator of Red Bull Bragantino from 2020 to 2022, Sandro Orlandelli was one of those responsible for assembling the current squad. It was also his job to implement the Austrian energy drink company’s mentality into the players’ work routine.

“Red Bull has its own characteristic in which everything is based on what the brand is: young, bold and aggressive,” he says. “We replicated this in football, forming a squad of young talents eager to grow and develop.”

Between 2019 and 2022, around R$485 million was spent on hiring athletes. This year, the value reached R$55 million.

According to the “Convocados” report, conducted by economist Cesar Grafietti, Bragantino was the fourth club that spent the most on signings in 2022, with R$355 million. Only Flamengo (R$564 million), Palmeiras (R$462 million) and Atlético Mineiro (R$424 million) spent more.

The investment, however, has not yet made the club self-sustainable, especially due to the growth in its debt, which was R$43 million in 2019 and reached R$530 million at the end of last year.

Still according to Grafietti, there is an understanding that a large part of this debt comes from loans made by Red Bull itself.

The investment model is in line with what is done at the franchise’s other clubs: RB Leipzig, from Germany, Red Bull Salzburg, from Austria, and the New York Red Bulls, from the United States. Everyone invests in hiring promises with future sales in mind.

It was like this, for example, with midfielder Claudinho, top scorer in the 2020 Brazilian Championship, with 18 goals. He was purchased by the club for R$2.5 million, in 2019, and sold to Zenit, from Russia, in 2021, for R$92 million.

In addition to the financial return, choosing young people, says Orlandelli, facilitates the development of the work. “They are more open to learning. The more senior a player is, the more you have to do what we call rework.”

The absence of renowned players, however, ends up attracting fewer fans to Bragantino’s matches, despite the good campaign in the Brazilian Championship.

The São Paulo team has the second worst average attendance in the competition, with 6,065 fans per game, ahead only of América-MG, already relegated, which has an average of 3,235 spectators per home game.

There are those who see this as a positive aspect. There is less pressure from the stands on the young squad.

“When we’re doing well, there’s no extra appeal in the stadium. But, when we’re not, that pressure that gets violent in other clubs doesn’t happen, which should give the team extra peace of mind to work and seek better results”, says Renan Eric de Lima Saviello, 24, parking operator.

A regular fan of the Nabi Abi Chedid stadium, he points out a reason for the low average attendance. “For years, we lived off promotions and often free tickets. Now, when you have to pay, some people get scared.”

He also believes that the fact that many citizens of Bragança have a big team from the capital as their first choice prevents the formation of a larger fan base. “This culture of placing Bragantino as a B team means that many do not see the team with the same taste and affection.”

This is the case of civil engineer Gilberto Borelli Junior, 26. From Palmeiras, he says he is divided in the final stretch of the Brazilian Championship, although he prefers to celebrate another alviverde title than what would be Bragantino’s first trophy in the Brazilian football elite. “But if Braga wins, I’ll celebrate and be happy too.”

In 1991, the then Clube Atlético Bragantino came close. At the time, the tournament was played in a different format: 20 clubs faced each other in a single round and the best four advanced to the semifinals. After eliminating Fluminense, Bragantino, led by Carlos Alberto Parreira, lost the final to São Paulo.