With the development of modern football, the center of world football has moved from South America to Europe. Since Brazil in 2002, no South American country has ever won the World Cup. In the top eight of the 2018 World Cup, only Uruguay and Brazil has two South American teams, and in the top four, only the European teams are left. At present, most fans will think that South American football has regressed. There has been a talent gap in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and South America. Is it really? No, only Argentina has a talent gap.
From the perspective of historical development, if there were no Maradona and Messi, Argentina should be the first level with Uruguay, and there is still a big gap with Brazil, the only one in South America. Although the star flavor of Brazil is not as strong as before, there are still a lot of Brazilian players in the top five European league teams, such as Neymar and Marchinhos of Paris, Coutinho of Barcelona, Real Madrid’s Casemiro and Vinicius, Bayern’s Douglas Costa, Liverpool’s Firmino and Fabinho are all the mainstays of the Brazilian team. In contrast to Argentina, the stars of the top five leagues are few and far between, and now only Barcelona’s Messi, Juventus’s Dybala, Manchester City’s Aguero, Paris’s Paredes and Di Maria are left. , Tottenham’s Roselso and Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez, this lineup is indeed inferior to the Brazilian team.
If you ignore Messi, the current Argentina may be similar to Uruguay. The Uruguayan players currently playing for the top five leagues include Atletico’s Suarez, Torreira and Simonis, and Manchester United’s Cava Nigeria, Real Madrid’s Valverde, Juventus’ Bentancur, Barcelona’s Araujo. If Argentina with Messi is better than Uruguay now, then in a few years after a group of veterans such as Messi, Aguero and Di Maria retire, Argentina may be about the same as Uruguay, and Argentina is now the best. The young player of Brazil is Lautaro Martinez, who played for Inter Milan, and the best young player of Uruguay is Valverde who played for Real Madrid. In terms of young players, Brazil has already led Argentina and Uruguay too much. .
At present, the outstanding players under the age of 23 in the Brazilian team include Real Madrid's Vinicius, Rodrigo and Militan, Everton's Lissarisson, Manchester City's Jesus, Aston Villa's Douglas-Louis and so on. In addition to the five major leagues, many European sub-leagues are the gathering places for the Brazilian little monsters, and the Argentine players are obviously much worse in this regard. In the 2020 Golden Boy Award list of 20 people, no player is from Argentina. The reason for this situation is not just the problem of the players. The chaos of the Argentine Football Association and the recession of the Argentine domestic economy also have a great impact.
It is an indisputable fact that the competitiveness of South American football has declined. The current South American football can only rely on Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay to hold up the final stage. Once it is the 80s of Messi, Suarez, Di Maria and Cavani. After the players retire, then South American football may have to rely on Brazil.
