Football Dissected

For decades South American nations have been the most feared footballing nations on the planet. The big two are of course Argentina and Brazil. But how do these two countries countinue to produce world-class players like Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho when their economies are worser than their European counterparts?

Firstly poverty plays a big role in the development of these players. Because most of the big stars, including Ronaldinho, Messi and others, were born into poverty, football was and is still seen as a way out of poverty. As a result of this and because of the amount of money involved in football nowadays, any young player which shows he has talent and skill from a early age is immediately pushed into football by his family. Football then takes over the player's life and the player spends more time in the football environment than in school.

There's also the factor of street football and beach football. Street and beach football in South American develops the player's skills significantly whereas in most European countries "No ball games" signs forbid young European players from this development. Street football lives on skill and talent and winning and scoring goals doesn't really matter; its about the art of football. Of course street football does exist in some European countries, including France and Spain, but quite often these young players are (1) not very fit when compared to players coming through the academies of the football clubs (2) not interested in getting into professional football, or (3) ignored by the football clubs completely because of various factors, including their skill levels when again compared to footballers in the academies.

The climate is also important. Young players running around in hot weather year round in South America are obviously going to develop their lung capacity, Cafu and Daniel Alves are prime examples, and because of this the stamia of most young players is better than their European counterparts. With improved stamia, some South American players are able to sprint up and down the field for a full 90 minutes and with this ability players like Cafu, Robert Carlos and other wing-backs are able to sprint forward without difficulty, adding a new attacking threat when teams come forward.

The economy of football in South American is also significant. Most players coming through the ranks of football clubs are owed by a third-party, like the Carlos Tevez case recently has proven. This is due to the fact that South American clubs are rather financially poor so third-parties, e.g. investors, come in and buy percentages of the players, like 20-30%, and then hope to make a profit when the player is sold to Europe. Brazil, as a example, exported around 700 players in just one year recently, so football in Brazil is more of a exporting trade and because of this the quality of the Brazilian league is rather poor as the best players are sold off to Europe.

These factors help South American countries produce some of the best players in the world, but, nevertheless, in some circumstances they don't apply. Zinedine Zidane and Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo recently are prime examples of non-South American players making it on the world stage.