No foreigners from the interior try to surprise in Paulista – 03/15/2024 – The World Is a Ball

In an increasingly globalized world, it has become natural to constantly see Brazilian teams, not just the most famous ones, foreign players parading their football on the pitch – sometimes good, other times not so good.

They arrived years ago to stay, even if most of them for a non-extended period (short contracts), and also to win titles.

There are international cups (in the case of Argentine Germán Cano and Colombian Jhon Arias at Fluminense), national cups (Paraguayan Gustavo Gómez, captain of Palmeiras, is a great example), to mention recent achievements, and also state cups.

The state championships, by the way, which open the football year in Brazil, are about to enter their decisive phases.

The main one in the country, Paulista, kicks off its knockout stages, the quarter-finals, this Saturday (16), with Palmeiras (current two-time champion) hosting Ponte Preta.

On Sunday there will be Bragantino x Internacional de Limeira, São Paulo x Novorizontino and Santos x Portuguesa.

As this is an international football blog, it is worth taking a more in-depth look at the outsiders of the teams, players and/or coaches, evaluating the current moment and the historical context.

In the last ten years, in nine – precisely the most recent – ​​the São Paulo champion had at least one athlete born outside Brazil participating in the decisive match.

In 2015, which began this sequence of foreigners at the champion club, Colombian Edwin Valencia played as a midfielder for Santos, who beat Palmeiras in the final.

In 2023, Palmeiras, which defeated Água Santa, from Diadema (Greater São Paulo), used defender Gómez and Argentine striker Flaco López in the final match. The ABC Paulista team, if they triumphed, would be the first since 2014 to lift the cup with a 100% Brazilian squad.

Ten years ago, Ituano, led by coach Doriva, with only Brazilian footballers won in the penalty shootout, against Santos, their second Paulista – the first was in 2002. The favorite coastal team had the Chilean full-back Mena.

Now, it is up to two other clubs from the interior of the state to surprise and make the competition crown a champion that has in its ranks exclusively players born in Brazil.

Inter de Limeira, which advanced to the quarterfinals leaving Corinthians out, and Novorizontino, from Novo Horizonte, are in this situation.

Inter is remembered for the feat achieved in 1986. That team, with striker Tato and center forward Kita, under the command of former striker Pepe (Pelé’s teammate in Santos’ heyday), defeated Palmeiras in Morumbi to give the interior of São Paulo its first state.

To reach the semi-finals, they will need to defeat Bragantino away from home, sixth placed in the 2023 Brazilian Championship and which has seven foreigners in the squad, including striker Tiago Borbas, 21, who played for the Uruguayan team last year, as well as Portuguese coach Pedro Box.

“International is a traditional and inclusive club that values ​​diversity and talent above all, regardless of the nationality of the players”, Danilo Maluf, president of the team from Lima, founded in 1913, told the blog.

“Our decision to form the current squad was based solely on criteria that fit within the club’s reality, always aiming to strengthen the team and seek the best results on the field”, he added, implying that the budgetary issue limited possible foreign signings. for Paulista.

He continued: “The Lion [apelido da Inter] It has an Analysis and Market Department that works by observing championships from different regions and countries. It is important to highlight that we have had foreign players in our squad in the past and we are open to new opportunities in the future.”

In relation to Novorizontino, anyone who is of a certain age and has followed football closely will remember that the team finished runner-up in São Paulo in 1990, falling to Bragantino in the first country decision in the state.

A few years later, the team began to suffer from poor management and financial problems, going bankrupt in 1999. It was “reincarnated” more than a decade later, in 2010, under the name Grêmio Novorizontino – previously it was Grêmio Esportivo Novorizontino.

Thus, despite the colors (yellow and black) being the same, the stadium (Jorge Ismael de Biasi) being the same and the city being the same, the club is not exactly the same, since it was refounded. Today, it is even a club-company, operating as SAF (Sociedade Anônima do Futebol).

“Our definition of planning for the season was very much based on the tournament [Paulista]which is a short competition, and our concern has always been adapting [dos jogadores]” Michel Alves, Novorizontino’s football executive, told the blog, clarifying the option to form the squad with athletes who were already active in Brazil.

Alves highlighted that the costs, both of hiring and salary, were not decisive for the team, temporarily, not to have foreign players.

According to him, when forming the group, no outsiders were found available who were of interest to the club and who had competed in championships in 2023 (especially Paulista), thus already being adapted to Brazilian culture.

“Apart from that, we don’t have any kind of problem [com gringos]. Last year we had a Chilean [Bryan Rabello] and a Japanese [Daiki Matusoka]”, concluded Alves.

Novorizontino’s knockout opponent, São Paulo, has among its foreigners – there are nine, the highest number among the quarter-final teams – two national team athletes, the Ecuadorian defender Arboleda and the Colombian midfielder James Rodríguez.

The other participants in this phase of Paulista have a varied number of foreign athletes: five (Palmeiras, who also has the Portuguese coach Abel Ferreira, and Santos), three (Ponte Preta) and one (Portuguesa).