Soccer

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Club final great moment for Brazil

Santos, Neymar show nation can afford to keep its top talent

By: Jerrad Peters

Posted: 12/17/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Brazil's Santos FC forward Neymar is the best thing since sliced bread and Messi. (SHIZUO KAMBAYASHI / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES)

There is an inescapable subtext to Sunday's fascinating FIFA Club World Cup final between Santos and Barcelona.

Santos, which qualified for the annual tournament by winning the Copa Libertadores -- South America's Champions League equivalent -- has in its ranks a young phenom by the name of Neymar who, at 19 years of age, is already the closest thing Brazil has to the best footballer in the world.

Now, anyone who knows anything about Brazilian soccer will know just how important it is for that country, which prides itself as being the spiritual and stylistic home of the sport, to be part of the "best footballer in the world" argument, and to usually win it.

Pele and Maradona are widely considered the best players in soccer history, and those in the Pele camp typically come out on top in the dispute. Strike one for Brazil.

The thing is, the terms of the debate have been altered in recent years by the ascension of Lionel Messi, who with Barcelona has won everything there is to win and who individually has dominated the sport unlike anyone else in a generation.

The plaudits are endless. Just 24, Messi is already scribbling his name all over the record books, and his style of play -- he never stops running and is one of the few players in the sport who can get you out of your seat with a dribble -- has endeared him to fans and observers worldwide. Strike one for Argentina.

Of course, Neymar and Messi, aside from being five years apart in age, have never played their club soccer on the same continent and are very different players, both in position and personality.

Where Messi likes to drop deep to make plays or go for a run with the ball, Neymar prefers to cut in from the left.

Where Messi is soft-spoken and values his privacy, Neymar is bombastic and craves the limelight. It's completely impossible, never mind unfair, to compare the two players, at least at this stage in their careers.

If anything, what Sunday's final represents is the coming of age of modern South American soccer.

The days when a big European club could raid the stables of a cash-hungry Brazilian outfit are over, and what Santos are in Japan to do on Sunday is herald the arrival of a change in the balance of power.

Neymar is the poster boy for the paradigm shift.

That much was made clear when first Chelsea and then Real Madrid came begging for his signature, only to be rebuffed in turn by a Santos side that neither wanted to sell their most valuable asset nor had to.

A burgeoning economy -- and the subsequent sponsorship deals and television money -- has meant that Brazilian clubs can afford to keep their best players as long as they wish and even lure the likes of Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Deco back to South America for salaries comparable to what they'd command in Europe.

Neymar, for his part, won't be moving across the Atlantic anytime soon. Five weeks ago he signed a new contract that will keep him at Santos until 2014.

This new reality, more than Neymar vs. Messi, is the real undertone of the 2011 Club World Cup final, and it's why the match is easily the most hotly anticipated in the tournament's history.

Yes, the world will be tuning in to see how Brazil's much-touted teenager matches up against the game's best player, but to leave it at that would do the occasion a great disservice.

This is Brazilian soccer's great, modern moment.

And win or lose on Sunday, Santos have already achieved both what they set out to do and what their financial reality has allowed them to do: go head-to-head with Barcelona as equals, and anticipate the very real chance of victory.

jerradpeters@gmail.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 17, 2011 C10

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