Seventeen names gone in one night
Carlo Ancelotti named his first squad since the World Cup ended, and the arithmetic did the talking. Seventeen players from that tournament are no longer in it. Neymar has retired, but the rest have simply been cut: Alisson, Ederson, Danilo, Casemiro, Matheus Cunha, Alex Sandro, Fabinho.
The list covers two friendlies against Australia on 25 and 29 September, then a trip to India on 3 October.
Eight newcomers walk in. Pedro Morisco (22, Coritiba), Otavio (20, Cruzeiro), Arthur Dias (19, Athletico-PR), Jair Cunha (21, Nottingham Forest), Matheuzinho (25, Corinthians), Mauro Junior (27, PSV), Breno Bidon (21, Corinthians), Gabriel Bontempo (21, Santos). Ten of the squad play their club football in Brazil, close to half the group.
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“I do not agree, but he is the one in charge”
Thiago Silva did not wait long. “You cannot leave out someone who is in good form. With the Brazil team, things have to be done step by step. You cannot leave everyone out and put new players in their place,” the defender said on Wednesday night.
Then he made it personal. “I nearly played at the World Cup at 41. It does not work like that here. I do not like this kind of change. I do not agree, but he is the one in charge.”
Ancelotti did not soften his answer. “In general, I do not look at players’ ages. But now is the time to give priority to that. A player aged 34 or 35 has no future, he represents the present.”
Brazil have tried this before, twice
According to UOL Deporte, the timeline behind the overhaul runs through the Los Angeles Games in 2028 and the Copa America that same year, with the 2030 World Cup as the destination.
There is a catch the Brazilian outlet raises. Brazil leaned on their gold-medal Olympic sides from 2016 and 2020 to feed the squads of 2018 and 2022. Neither handover produced a sixth star.
Marquinhos, Raphinha, Vini Jr and Bruno Guimaraes are all still here. The spine survived. Australia, later this month, will be the first place anyone finds out whether the rest of it holds.
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