Suman Chakravorty & Debasis Sen, Kolkata: Gabriel Brazào, the name might seem ‘uncommon’ to the Brazilian football fans across the globe, but the way the new wonderkid has been performing in the FIFA U17 World Cup, he has every ingredient to become the next big thing in Brazilian football.
Brazil vs Germany – can easily be termed the match of the ongoing competition. The famous 1-7 debacle at belo Horizonte in the last World Cup, the illustrious Gold medal in the last Rio Olympics and of course the pride of world’s two most successful footballing nations – the match has all the contents to become an iconic battle. Though the moment Brazao was asked about the disastrous 1-7 defeat at Belo Horizonte, he replied, “That’s past. We are drawing inspiration from the Olympics final where we defeated the Germans to win the Gold. We are only thinking positive.”
The Cruzeiro goalkeeper also confessed that he had some special video messages before the big game against Germany. He said, “Yes Gabriel Jesus(Man City), Ederson(Man City) and Jorge(Monaco) sent me personal video messages for the next game.”
The Brazilians were seen training despite heavy downpour today and specially emphasised on penalty shootout. Brazao said, “We are ready for all the situations. The last time I faced penalty shootout, was back in Brazil, when I made four saves in the tie-breaker in a game between Palmeiras and Cruzeiro. I conceded just one goal in this competition because my defenders are not allowing the opposition to penetrate.”
Brazao, who started his footballing career as a forward, changed his position at the age of eight and started the journey to become a goalkeeper. Brazao said, “I was born as a goalkeeper. Yes I started my career as a forward but changed it at the age of eight. My idol is Fabio who plays in Brazilian Serie A.”
The Brazilians rested almost all their first team players today except goalkeeper Brazao, defender Rodrigo Gooth and left full-back Weverton. Brazil U17 coach Carlos Amadeu was seen focusing on the situational training and specially on the third-man movement inside the box.
No doubt, the stage is heating up for the mother of all battles in modern day football and Kolkata too is getting ready to witness the mouth-watering contest.