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By Mkinga Mkinga and Agencies As local soccer players eye professional career in Europe, some Brazilian samba stars increasingly spurn the best paying European leagues.
In contrast to the South Americans, Tanzanian players, even at their thirties still fight unflaggingly for chances to play in Europe. A number of the ageing local players have lately landed lucrative deals in the Scandinavian countries, harbouring dream of rising to the top. The pertinent question remains, will they be good enough to serve their mother country?  Obviously not, at their ages, no any exemplary player managed to win the limelight and serve the national team deservedly.
The four strikers selected for Brazil's 2006 World Cup squad will all be competing in the same league this season. Ronaldo, Adriano, Fred and Robinho will be scoring their goals back home in the Campeonato Brasileiro.
What was considered the cream of Brazilian fire-power just a few years ago will be coming up against a further five members of the 2006 squad. Four years on from the tournament in Germany nearly half the squad have made their way home.
The moves back home involving players in their thirties such as Gilberto, Ricardinho and the now retired Emerson may not have been the most eyebrow raising transfers around. Even global superstars such as the geriat-tico duo of Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos were left with few options but to come home. These players are upholding a long tradition of top stars seeing out their careers in their homeland.
The same is true in Argentina with Roberto Abbondanzieri, Roberto Ayala, Juan Pablo Sorin and Juan Roman Riquelme waving goodbye to Europe in the autumn of their careers. However, it is only Ayala, who returned to Argentina aged 36, and Riquelme, who is law unto himself, of the four that will be playing in their homeland this year. At 37 years old Abbondanzieri has recently moved from his spiritual home of Boca Juniors to Internacional in Brazil while Sorin played his last season in Brazil with Cruzeiro before retiring.
What you will not find in Argentina is full internationals playing in their homeland at the peak of their powers. Over in Brazil however you can pay your money to watch a 26-year-old Robinho turn out for Santos or a 29-year-old Cicinho playing for São Paulo.
Last season’s top scorer in the Brasileiro was Adriano who only turned 28-years-old this month and fellow hotshot Fred is two years younger.
So how can these players possibly resist the urge to play in Spain, Italy and England’s self styled best league in the World?
The majority of Brazilian footballers come from extremely humble backgrounds but still home is always where the heart is. This has been true as far back as the ultra-talented Garrincha. The two time World Cup winner shunned the spotlight which was shone on his team-mate Pele. Garrincha was far more at home spending time with the people he grew up with in Pau Grande in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
Could it be possible that members of today’s generation of gifted Brazilian footballers also prefer Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to Milan, Manchester and even Madrid?
Of course they prefer it back home. The Brazilian lifestyle is truly unique and the leeway afforded to the top stars is a world away from the pressure cooker situation in Europe.
So what of the English Premier League’s record transfer? Surely he is looking forward to another stab at competing at the highest level?
Robinho’s plane had barely touched down in São Paulo when he reflected on his move to Manchester City by saying “maybe if I had gone to another club it would have been better for me.”
Right-back Cicinho had also been enduring an equally miserable time as his international colleague Robinho for the past year. In an age when player power is on the rise season by season he was able to engineer an escape from Europe in the shape of a six month loan deal back at his beloved Sao Paulo.
Cicinho also thanked his parent club AS Roma for the move by echoing similar sentiments as those voiced by Robinho.
“When I finish the loan spell I still have another two years to run on my contract at Roma. During the Christmas holidays I made a statement that I wished to leave and they fined me. I’ll stay with São Paulo for the six months and then we can a new conversation. All I will say is that I want to stay at São Paulo until the end of my career.”
One element benefiting these players hell-bent on playing in Brazil is that in Lula the country has one of finest politicians of the modern era at the helm. Now serving his second term as president, Lula has taken Brazil out of debt as well as servicing the needs of every sector of Brazilian society as well as can be humanly imagined.
The discovery of oil reserves off the coast of Brazil has boosted the country’s economy substantially and this period of growth is trickling through to football. Whereas a downturn in the spending power of European teams threatens to cripple clubs such as Boca Juniors and River Plate the situation in Brazil is relatively healthy.
It is not just the leader of country who has the gift of manipulating money however as the presidents of football clubs in Brazil have proved just as creative when landing the big fish.
Little to none of the wages which are picked up by the likes of Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos or Robinho are paid by Corinthians or Santos. These paypackets are stumped up by private companies who in turn get to use the players to advertise their products.
The star players’ salaries dwarf the earnings of their team-mates and would never fit in line which the strictly monitored wage structures in Europe. However this is a land where the individual star is adored by fans and players alike, high earnings and eratic behaviour is expected in return for performances on the pitch.
There are exceptions to this however and last year Vagner Love’s attitude won him no fans on his return to Palmeiras. He was eventually chased out of the club but has since ended up at Flamengo.
Another factor behind these prodigal sons heading home may partly be down to Dunga’s willingness to call up domestic based players to the national team. A fit Adriano seems set to travel to South Africa along with players such as Kléberson who continue to catch his eye despite playing under his nose.
With the trend of coming home clearly on the up there are also those who have never left in the first place. Goalkeepers are a different breed anyway but Marcos of Palmeiras turned down a host of offers to play abroad after winning the World Cup in 2002.
Rogerio Ceni was part of Brazil’s 2006 World Cup squad and has been in fine form for São Paulo all his career as he sits on the verge of making 900 appearances for his one and only club. Offers have come in for the goalkeeper but always been turned down. Can you blame Rogerio Ceni for not making the move? Where in Europe would he have been able to score 49 free-kicks and 38 penalties in his career?
As more players return home and tell their tales of misery from the cold and dark corners of Europe the next batch of youngsters may well be tempted to stay put. Already Hernanes of São Paulo has resisted the move up until the age of 24 and he is clearly the best passer of the ball the Brazilian league has to offer.
The meat on the bone of Brazilian players heading home is simple. Footballers leave to make money, not for any kind of prestige of playing in the English Premier League or even the Champions League. If the day comes when Brazilian clubs can match the sums being offered in Europe there is not a cat in hell’s chance the brightest talents in the world will swap home for Hull.
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