Brasileirão 2007: Know The Best Eleven

It was little surprise that Brasileirão 2007 winners São Paulo was the club that ruled the roost at the Prêmio Craque Brasileirão (Crack Brazilian First Division Player Prize) ceremony at Rio de Janeiro's Teatro Municipal (Municipal Theatre), although Flamengo did manage to field two players, the other clubs only managing to boast one representative.

The annual event is run by the CBF (Confederação Brasileira de Futebol - Confederation of Brazilian Football) and this year has been designed to fit into an end-of-year bash where the theoretical best of the Brazilian League faces the Brazilian Olympic Squad that Dunga chose from young emerging Brazilian talenmts at Maracanã in what seems to be an intriguing - albeit unbalanced - clash.

Rogério Ceni (Goalkeeper), Breno, Miranda (Centre-Backs), Hernanes and Richarlyson (Holding Midfielders) were the five São Paulo players to make it into the first eleven, joined by Coach Muricy Ramalho. Ceni (pictured with the trophy) and Breno also won personal prizes as the keeper was named Rei da Bola (King Of The Ball) and the defender was voted best revelation.

The Tricolor Paulista keeper also received the fan fave title as the player who commands the most respect amongst the more fanatical followers. “This prize (craque da competição - crack player of the championship) is something that I feel honour-bound to share with my team-mates as they deserve it as much or more than I do”, explained a humble Ceni as he won for the second time running.

Flamengo provided Leonardo Moura (Right Wing-Back) and Ibson (Midfield), both players being - along with Seleção Olimpica man Toró and the coveted Renato Augusto - the motors behind taking Fla out of a nosedive towards the Segondona (second division - a.k.a Série B) and lifting the Urubu into a third placed finish and a place in next season's Libertadores Cup. They also won the symbolic "Torcida de Ouro" (Golden Fans) for the (largely) exemplary behaviour of the Fla faithful.

The Coach who saved Flamengo from the drop, Joel Santana, was pipped to the prize of best tactician by Muricy Ramalho, nudging Santana into second and Palmeiras Coach Caio Júnior into third. Other illustrious Coaches were present in the form of Dunga (plus assistant Jorginho) and retired 1970 World Cup winning tactician Zagallo - who won the Jules Rimet trophy twice as a player in 1958 and 1962 before scoring a hat-trick by training the Dream Team in 1970.

Parallel to this implicit World Cup link, the CBF made a point of highlighting the successful 2014 World Cup bid via hairy soap opera actors Tony Ramos and Marcos Palmeira who read out the list (composed by a total of 450 players, ex-players, Coaches, ex-Coaches as well as representatives of the sporting press) as follows:

Brasileirão Best Eleven 2007

Goalkeeper: Rogério Ceni (São Paulo)



Right-Back: Leonardo Moura (Flamengo)



Centre-Back (Right): Breno (São Paulo)


Centre-Back (Left): Miranda (São Paulo)



Left-Back: Kléber (Santos)


Defensive Midfielder (Right): Hernanes (São Paulo)


Defensive Midfielder (Left): Richarlyson (São Paulo)


Inside Right: Ibson (Flamengo)


Inside Left: Valdivia (Palmeiras)




Striker: Acosta (Náutico)


Striker: Josiel (Paraná Clube)



Coach: Muricy Ramalho (São Paulo)

That leaves the teams that will be fielded at the spanking new Engenhão stadium, barring any last-gasp changes as follows: nine Brazilians and two foreigners as Valdívia (Palmeiras) and Acosta (Uruguay; the vice-top-scorer being a late bloomer who's not been seen much in the Celeste shirt) made it into the top eleven.

Possible Line-Ups

BRASILEIRÃO STARS (4-4-2): Rogério Ceni, Leonardo Moura, Breno, Miranda and Kléber; Hernanes, Richarlyson, Ibson and Valdívia; Acosta and Josiel.
Coach: Muricy Ramalho.

BRAZIL - 2008 OLYMPIC SQUAD (4-2-3-1): Renan (Felipe); Apodi (Nei), Breno, Luiz Rhodolfo (Leonardo) and Leonardo (Valmir); Leandro Almeida and Maycon; Toró (Charles), Thiago Neves (Diogo) and Diego Souza (Grêmio); Alexandre Pato (Ramires, Pedro Oldoni, Keirrison)
Coach: Dunga

The São Paulo Contingent

Players such as Rogério Ceni and Breno should already ring bells even for those unaccustomed to keeping tabs with the goings-on in Brazil, while those who've kept up with coverage throughout the year have seen that the other São Paulo players to make it into the list figured prominently in most matches and gained shining reviews and applause from pundits.

João Miranda de Souza Filho, more commonly known as Miranda, earned a foreign move for his sterling showings in the Campeonato Paranaense (Paraná State Championship) playing for Coritiba in 2004. In 2005 Ligue 1 outfit Sochaux snapped him up but the Brazilian had a hard time adjusting to his first foreign affair and was loaned out in 2006, São Paulo FC seeing him as the perfect cost-effective substitute for Diego Lugano (Fenerbahçe).

Weighing in at 77kg and 1.85m the player is nimble enough for aerial play and has shown himself to be good enough to earn a call-up to national level after convincing Dunga that the 23 year-old centre-back just may be a future Brazil player. With the alarming amount of injuries that have hit Brazil recently, Miranda may well be a name to bear in mind.

The last two Tricolor Paulista (Three Colours from São Paulo City) players are both defensive midfielders. Hernanes and Richarlyson supplanted the old São Paulo holding midfield composed of two players who ended up in the Bundesliga and the Seleção: Mineiro (Hertha Berlin) and Josué (Wolfsburg). Many Brazilian experts are tipping both to jump the pond soon.

Richarlyson Barbosa Felisbino, known just by his made-up mangled English name (a common practice in a land where Liverpool club Everton is a common first name and Michael is spelled Maicon or Maycon) actually hails from a footballing family as the 24 year-old player from the northern city of Natal is son of Reinaldo 'Lela' Felisbino, Coritiba's star 1980s left winger.

Not only his father, but brother Alecsandro plays for Cruzeiro and was seen briefly in Europe as a striker for Sporting Clube de Portugal, coming back from the Leões in July but still being able to figure at the top end of the top scorer table topped by Josiel. Richarlyson himself also had a brief stint in Europe, but failed to catch fire at Austrian outfit SV Salzburg on a short loan deal.

A shorter player, similar to a Mineiro whose departure allowed Richarlyson a shot at the big time that he didn't let slide, making up for a three-month forced stoppage in dry dock as the player recovered from a car accident during the Paulistão 2007 (São Paulo State Championship), becoming a key part of the SPFC side that struggled in the first part of the Brasileirão 2007 but went on to stitch together an (almost) record-breaking winning streak.

Richarlyson's year seemed set for a different outcome as at the end of June 2007, the player was 'outed' on the Milton Neves show Debate Bola (Ball Talk) by acidic Palmeiras exec José Cyrillo Júnior to spite the player for not signing for Palmeiras. The plot thickened - and sickened - as original magistrate Manoel Maximiano Junqueira Filho dismissed the ensuing lawsuit, arguing that football is a "virile, masculine sport and not a homosexual one".

The case continues to boil away in the background and Richarlyson has kept submarine silence about his sexual preferences, refusing to add gasoline to the fire with a denial. Fortunately the kerfuffle didn't throw the midfielder off and he's reported to be in talks for a move to AS Roma, possibly as early as January 2008.

His partner - in the footballing sense - at the Tricolor Paulista is Anderson Hernanes de Carvalho Andrade Lima, another lengthy name that can be reduced to one keyword: Hernanes. Born on the 29th of May 1985, Hernanes also hails from the northern coast, although instead of Natal the state in question is Recife. Standing slightly taller than Richarlyson, Hernanes has kicked up a small storm since making a first team place his own at the age of 22.

The number 26 started off at minnows Unibol Pernambuco before the almighty São Paulo came knocking to take him to the big city and hone his talent in the junior divisions, although he had to endure a loan deal that sent him down into the second division and industrial suburban São Paulo team Santo André. The time spent at the working class club paid off and Hernanes came back after being one of the highlights of the 'Segundona'.

The Flamengo duo of Leonardo 'Léo' Moura and Ibson also have had a dabble in European football, the former - from the Rio de Janeiro region of Niterói - having played at Dutch club Den Haag in 2000-1 and at Portuguese Arsenalistas Sporting Braga...as well as São Paulo, the latter at FC Porto from 2005-2007 and a man who returned to his beloved Mengão (Big Flamengo) to take the team from the depths of the relegation zone to a stunning third place finish.

Léo is hardly a spring chicken at 29 years of age, but he's far from washed up and may well be a tempting prospect for many clubs who need a solid yet light (66kg) right-back with an attacking bent who can also be improvised in midfield. He's experienced adversity as he was relegated with Palmeiras in 2002 and played alongside Romário at both Fluminense and Vasco.

Ibson is five years younger and has managed to confirm early suspicions that he's capable of organising a defensive midfield with efficiency and aplomb - as well as an intelligent view of how the game is going. At FC Porto he started brightly but fell out of favour under Co Adriaanse and was relegated to a semi-permanent place on the bench due to the arrival of (now Captain) Lucho González and a nagging injury that blighted his 2006.

The others include a familiar face from Dunga's recent Brazil call-ups: Kléber. The left-back came to prominence under Luxemburgo at Corinthians and played for Swiss club Grasshoppers but hopped back to Brazil and Luxemburgo once more - this time at Santos - where he's rapidly filled the void left by Bayern Munich man Zé Roberto. At national level he's yet to recreate the attacking flair that marked his 2007 at club level.

The two foreigners in the list are Chilean number 10 Valdívia and Uruguayan Acosta: both with offers to move to Europe in the New Year - according to the grapevine. The Chilean is a typical classy playmaker with a penchant for acting and exuberant complaints, but excellent passing and finishing skills, whereas the Uruguayan has risen from obscurity to finish second on the top scorer table - just below the final member of the crack squad: Josiel.