After its rise and fall, Corinthians flirting with disaster

	Celebrations are scarce at Corinthians this season, as the team is losing and star Carlos Tévez (left) is nowhere to be found. AP
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SÃO PAULO, Brazil -- It all began with the dream of becoming a super-club, and the foreign invasion that followed. Now it's all falling apart.

Two years ago, Corinthians, one of the oldest and most storied clubs in Brazilian history, created a national crisis. The team's ownership sold a stake in the club to a mysterious London-based outfit called Media Sports Investment. All of a sudden São Paulo's quintessentially Brazilian team had become not so Brazilian.

Argentine World Cup hero Daniel Passarella was brought in to coach. On top of that, not one, not two, but three Argentinean players were brought into the fold, including the most expensive and famous player to step on Brazilian pitches in years: $22 million man Carlos Tévez.

Back in England, the wheeling and dealing was spoken in different accents. Beyond the head of the operation -- an Iranian Englishman named Kia Joorabchian -- the money seemed to be coming from a Russian named Boris Berezovsky, while the deals were consummated by an Israeli named Pini Zahavi.

Fans were dumbfounded, and rightly so. Their club was seemingly being taken from them. The confusion surely made the forefathers of the honored Corinthians -- founded in 1882 in England -- spin in their graves. But even as a series of scandalous accusations rained down on the mysterious Iranian-Russian-Argentine-Israeli MSI, winning was enough to make people forget it all.

Corinthians started to bring homegrown talent back to Brazil to play alongside its two gifted Argentine boys, Tévez and Javier Mascherano: Carlos Alberto was reclaimed from FC Porto, Roger was brought home from Benfica, and the most successful of all, center forward Nilmar, was recalled from Olympique Lyon.

The team became a force, and for the 10 years following the completion of the deal with MSI, Corinthians was a dynasty. Even after Passarella left, things continued to improve. During the 2005 season the squad put together a superb blend of talent and earned win after win, culminating in the team's first Brazilian title since 1999, and its fourth in club history.

Corinthians seemed cool, as the people said. After all the scandals and suspect characters, confusion and mysteries, it was the best team in Brazil, with the country's best player (an Argentine!) and a bright future.

That was in the distant past of eight months ago.

Now things are completely different. The team is coached by a man who earns close to $150,000 a month (65 percent of the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil earn $150 dollars a month), and Corinthians, only one season after winning the title, is among the three worst clubs in the National Championship.

Until a few days ago, just before new coach Émerson Leão took his job, the team was in last place. This is the same team that cost close to $80 million to put together in less than an 18-month period. It was supposed to be the ghost that would haunt opponents and win titles for years. Twenty months and seven coaches later, things look bad.

After Sunday's loss to Grêmio, Corinthians fell to 6-2-12 on the season, in 19th place out of 20 teams in the Brazilian standings. Even the club's star coach hasn't been able to avert disaster.

What about the stars, you might ask? Where is Carlitos Tévez, the $22 million man and the best player in Brazil in '05, one of Argentina's World Cup heroes?

Angry fans chanted his name during the Grêmio loss, but he was last seen at a Buenos Aires theater, grooving to the sounds of a Cumbia band after disappearing from Corinthians practice. There he was at the Teatro Gran Rex, angry at no longer being the golden boy of the Fiel Torcida, Corinthians' faithful fans.

The man they call "El Apache" didn't want to hear about Leão or Corinthians after a disappointing meeting with his new coach. After all, he wasn't allowed to leave for Argentina's monstrous friendly against Brazil on Sept. 3 in London. Leão even took away the captain's arm band from Tévez, simply explaining to the press, "Do you journalists understand anything when he speaks? I do not, so he does not have to speak. He has to play!"

But enough about Tévez. He's probably on his way to AS Roma, Chelsea, Bayern Munich or elsewhere -- it's only a question of time. In fact, it's possible he'll be in London for the Brazil friendly and may never return to South America after that.

Corinthians fans are not happy with their team. Egos, police investigations, rumors of money-laundering and truant stars are creating giant frustration among the supporters. The club is among the most popular in the world -- and it's a time bomb waiting to go off.

Fans are eager to bring their own form of justice (which wouldn't be the first time). Club president Alberto Dualib and his men are extremely unhappy with the mysterious MSI. Other players, such as Mascherano, might follow Tévez's example and leave. Worst of all is the possibility that one of the most important and traditional powers in Brazilian history could soon be relegated if things don't improve.

Tévez, meanwhile, left his apartment -- and his dog -- behind in São Paulo. Corinthians fans need an idol, and there are none on the horizon.

It's a sad story in a place teeming with pride. Perhaps no one sums it up better than Corinthians icon and former Brazilian national-team star Sócrates: "Passion and religion, which is what Corinthians mostly represents to all of us," says the '82 World Cup hero, "became a sad case of selling the highest asset: our love of football."

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