Sunday, January 24, 2021

350 Greatest Brazilian Players (150th-350th)




Some of the best posts from this blog have been turned into a two-volume book: The Multiverse of the Beautiful Game: National Teams of Pure Fantasy.


Volume 1 Picture football's wildest dreams actually coming true. Could Brazil's already-beautiful 1982 side, with Careca leading the line, have cruised to the title? Could Sweden with "Gre-No-Li" have somehow stopped the Maracanazo in 1950? Imagine Pelé, Garrincha, Didi, Zizinho and Julinho all starring for Brazil at once in 1958. And what about the United Kingdom sending its team to the 1970 World Cup? I believe they would have been the strongest side on earth — Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore, Jack Charlton, George Best, Denis Law, Jinky Johnstone and Billy Bremner could have beaten Brazil.  What if Argentina had fielded both Omar Sivori and Alfredo Di Stéfano together in 1958? What if Johan Cruyff had lined up alongside Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, and Frank Rijkaard? Then there is Eusébio playing for Brazil — he and Pelé on the same team. And that's only scratching the surface — Volume 1 is packed with legendary "what ifs" that will keep you turning pages.

Volume 2 brings the fantasy closer to home. What if England had Michael Olise, Erling Haaland, Antoine Semenyo and Jamal Musiala in 2026 — could they go all the way with Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham?  What if Yugoslavia had gone to the World Cup in 2018? Could Spain have won the 2010 World Cup without Catalan players? Could Catalonia do it alone? And could they have won Euro 2024 with only Basque players What if the United States could select more players in 2010? It would be the greatest American side ever. And what if Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi had actually played for the same national team in 2006? It could have happened — if the soccer gods had smiled on us.
*** Both Volume One and Volume Two are available now on Amazon. ***

Please also see my All-Time World Cup Team Index.


I have created a list of the Top 350 footballers from Brazil. The top 50 are ranked individually.  From 50th to 350th, I created two tiers or clusters of players.  This is the second tier of players between 150th and 250th.  



Explanation
--  I actually do not believe in ranking of individual players.   I tried many times to do a ranking on various topics, but I changed my mind each time I edited the list.  The topic is subjective. I can never ever create a conclusive ranking.  Then, I divided the rest of the 300 players into two different tiers or clusters.  Even that is very hard to do an incontestable list.  For example, Zito (43rd) can easily make it to the top 25 or even fall out of the top 50.  Brazil or most nations can produce so many footballers with similar preeminence that the task of a ranking is impossible. 
-- The task of selecting the last 200 footballers was boring.  Basically, I named most of the Brazilians with name recognition. I never heard of some of the players before I started this blog.  I am still unclear if they deserved their status here.  
-- I don't know if Charles William Miller belonged to this list.  Along with Harry Welfare, he should be honored in some way.
-- Balthazar, Dada Maraviha, etc could easily make the 50th to 150th tier.  They are on the second tier.  At one point, Denilson was on my next tier.  Certainly, he had the label of being a bust due to his price tag, but he achieved many things in his career.  I felt the same way with Diego who was one of Bundesliga's best player at one point.  Naldo, Lincoln, Dede, etc were all big stars over there as well.
-- In 1969, then Brazilian President Emílio Garrastazu Médici asked coach Mário Zagallo to select Dadá Maraviha for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.  Some accused the president of using political pressure to interfere the national team.  I have told that Dada Maraviha actually deserved to be national team.
-- Some names are listed differently to help better identification.  Eder Aleixo was better known as Eder, but there were several Eder's in the football world.  
-- The names of Brazilian footballers are confusing.  I listed a few of footballers by their longer names, but they might not be their usual name.  I also created this fun blog team.  Brazilian footballers who shared names with historical figures.  
-- Brazilians who were capped by other national teams are also considered.  I included those players because of José Altafini (Mazzola) and Anfilogino Guarisi.  Both of them also played for Brazil. I cannot justify the selection of them without considering the others. Diego Costa, Otávio Fantoni, Thiago Motta, Thiago Alcantara, Donato, Liedson, Luis Oliveira and Marcos Senna made this tier.
-- Most players who played in a World Cup were selected.
-- Allisson will move up one day.  I tended to rate the modern Brazilian goalkeepers higher than the older ones.  
-- Footage of Mario Sergio playing for Gremio went viral a few years ago.  I do believe that he was probably better than how people remembered him.
-- I don't know about the Fantoni family.  Otávio Fantoni (Nininho),  João Fantoni (Ninão) and Leonízio Fantoni (Niginho) all made the list.  I listed Nininho as Otávio Fantoni, who played for Italy.
-- Maxwell won the Dutch Footballer of the Year.  
-- Alexandre Pato was at one point a star player in Italy.  
-- Waldemar de Brito was known as the scout who discovered Pele.  He supposingly predicted that Pele would become the best player in the world.  He himself played 18 times for Brazil.
-- Serginho Chulapa became a scapegoat of the 1982 World Cup team.  His style did not fit well with the rest of that team.  However, he was actually the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A top scorer in 1983  with 22 goals.
-- Jair Gonçalves Prates is a club legend with Sport Club Internacional.  Jair de Rosa Pinto is my 26th Greatest Brazilian while Jair da Costa is on my higher tier.
-- Túlio was famous for scoring a controversial equalizer against Argentina in the quarter-finals of the 1995 Copa América in Uruguay in which he committed a deliberate handball.  He never played for Brazil again after that goal.  He is the 6th All-Time leading scorer in Brazil's Serie A.  Washington who might surprised many people for his selection is the 8th.
-- Fabio  is Serie A's appearance leader.  Leo Moura was third while Paulo Baier was fourth.

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