Is running to Euro riches good for Brazilian players?

	Robinho (right) was encouraged by Brazil's former national-team coach to try his luck at Real Madrid; the results have been mixed. Firofoto/WireImage.com
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Ready for some real fantasy football? You could easily field a full Brazilian national team -- plus a whole bench of substitutes -- from players involved this week in Europe's Champions League.

"Big deal," many will shrug -- especially the millions who have become interested in the game in the last 15 years. For them it has always been this way. But it hasn't. Not many realize what a recent phenomenon this is.

As late as 1986, only two members of Brazil's World Cup squad of 22 played their club soccer in Europe. Four years later, the floodgates had opened. Brazil's '90 squad was split 12-10 in favor of European-based players. Not surprisingly, the disharmony between the two groups was one of the reasons for the team's poor performance that year.

But since then, there has been no argument. The bulk of the current Brazilian national squad makes its living in Europe, and any leftovers are up-and-coming players who will be on their way soon. Brazilian soccer has become an export industry, consistently sending more than 800 players a year abroad. And the world is learning to adjust.

Back home, the state championships are full of little clubs that have been formed since 1990, usually as vehicles for agents. Even the biggest clubs are affected: Current world champion Internacional of Porto Alegre makes it very clear that its aim is to produce and sell the occasional potential star in order to finance a squad of workmanlike players.

The national team has its own politics, as Nike learned when it plowed millions into becoming the official sponsor of the Seleção. There have been all sorts of rumors of how the giant conglomerate has tried to extend its influence, from the sportswear manufacturer actually picking the team, to forcing Ronaldo to play in the '98 World Cup final. It makes perfect sense, since Nike isn't investing a reported $244 million to see Brazil's substitutes on the pitch.

But the Oregon-based behemoth saw that in friendlies, the squad suffered political influence (the need to pick at least one player from each of the country's major centers), and, increasingly, economic pressures (agents jostling for a call-up for their players, which would increase their stars' transfer values and put them in the shop window).

But what about the players? Apart from a massive pay raise, what do they get from moving to Europe? They learn to succeed in a much faster game, as playmaker Diego has discovered. A sensation as a 17-year-old with Santos, Diego struggled in his first season in Europe with Porto before becoming dominant this year in Germany with Werder Bremen.

"In Brazil, you have more time to define the move," he says. "In Europe, the midfielder has to think much quicker."

But faster soccer doesn't necessarily mean more tactically astute -- at least in the view of Brazil's management team. Assistant coach Jorginho, a top-class right back in his playing days, spent 5 1/2 years in Germany. He's adamant that, of the coaches under whom he worked while he was there, Franz Beckenbauer was the only one who knew the slightest thing about tactics.

Head coach Dunga agrees. Based on his own experiences in Italy and Germany, he argues that, "Our press likes to say that the Brazilian player goes abroad in order to evolve tactically." But he worries that the opposite can even be the case.

The extra ability on the ball of a Brazilian player means that he is not given defensive responsibilities. Fullbacks in Brazil become wing backs in Europe, attacking midfielders become strikers. The key advantage, as Dunga sees it, has less to do with soccer and more to do with mentality.

"The reality is that the Brazilian player goes abroad to learn to have responsibility, both individual and collective," he says. "In Brazil, any player who is above average thinks he can get away with more than the others, and behaves irresponsibly, including on the pitch. The big problem of Brazilian coaches is paternalism. They let the players get away with too much. But in Europe, if the player is not playing for the team, he loses his place."

Nearly two years ago, Dunga's predecessor as national team coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, found himself under attack for advising Santos wunderkind Robinho to move to Europe.

"It's better for him to go," said Parreira then. "When a player has this experience, he comes back to us better. In Europe, it's a totally different situation. There's more organization and the player is obliged to grow up. In Brazil, it's complicated. Everything is turned into a crisis, often because of the press. In Europe a star player can be left on the bench. Here, to leave out a good player, you need to talk to his mother, his father. You even need a letter from a bishop!"