Coaching void haunts Brazil as five-time champs embark on another WC campaign

Since their last World Cup triumph in 2002, Brazil — five-time world champions — have been eliminated from the tournament by five different European sides: France in 2006, the Netherlands in 2010, Germany in 2014, Belgium in 2018, and Croatia in 2022.

- ANIK DUTTA

Each defeat exposed familiar flaws: tactical naivety, the absence of contingency plans, and a coaching culture that never matured.

Now compare this with Argentina. When their golden generation retired, many transitioned to coaching roles. Diego Simeone, Lionel Scaloni, Pablo Aimar, Walter Samuel, Ricardo Gareca, Gabriel Heinze, Javier Mascherano — the list is long.

They may not be philosophers in the mould of Johan Cruyff, but they are astute, organised, and wholly committed to the game.

Brazil, by contrast, has exported players rather than ideas. Apart from Tele Santana, there has been little in the way of a Brazilian coaching tradition.