“We don’t play for… any.
“(…) Tomorrow there is work and more work.
“No excuses.”
The anger of the base director, João Paulo Sampaio, was written in every letter he wrote on his social networks, after the shocking elimination of the Palm trees of the São Paulo Cup.
The two-time champion team fell to Ibrachina. In normal time, a 2-2 draw and elimination of the quarter-finals on penalties, 5 to 4.
There was immense disappointment at the Barueri arena yesterday. Palmeiras was not only the favorite to win the game, but the team itself Cup.
Sampaio has been in charge of the base since 2015. Coveted by numerous clubs, he receives a very high executive salary. Close to R$600,000, he has a termination fine.
The billionaire Leila Pereira He wants it at Palmeiras as much as Abel Ferreira. It was due to its fundraising power that the club revealed and sold Endrick, Estêvão, Vitor Reis, Luis Guilherme, Jhon Jhon, and countless other athletes.
Allan should be the next to leave. There is already an auction for the striker, between European giants.
Since João Paulo Sampaio started working at the club, the calculation, roughly speaking, is that Palmeiras invested R$260 million in all youth categories, in 11 years.
No one in the country spent that much.
And it didn’t even raise that much. In sales, Palmeiras reached R$3.7 billion.
With this attracting power, yesterday’s elimination from the most important and most visible competition in the country, among under-20 players, was absolutely frustrating for Palmeiras.
Abel Ferreira was absent from the Copinha team, yes. Because of the premature start of the Campeonato Paulista he took on a powerful quartet: Larson, Luís Pacheco and Erick Belé, Riquelme Fillipi, all treated with great care. And that, together, they had the potential to make Palmeiras under-20 much stronger.
But it was a situation that coach Lucas Andrade already knew would happen. And he couldn’t cope, as Palmeiras really didn’t play well in this Copa São Paulo. It wasn’t just in front of the brave Ibrachina.
The charge will be tough, promises Sampaio.
Because Palmeiras, in addition to training athletes, makes a point of accumulating achievements at the base, since no club in the country invests R$30 million, on average, per year, in boys.
Sampaio coordinates observers throughout South America.
And businesspeople are already managing the careers of boys from the age of ten. In other words, a talent is fought for financially tooth and nail. By Brazilian and European clubs, which maintain their representatives throughout South America.
But the contrast of Palmeiras’ fall in the Copa São Paulo was too great.
Ibrachina is a team formed solely to train players. To be negotiated. The club, which is based in Mooca, a neighborhood in São Paulo, does not yet invest in the professional category.
The club spends around R$250,000 a month to maintain the three categories, according to journalists specializing in the base. With the boys and Technical Committee. Expenses include stadium maintenance, food, travel, medical department, etc.
Palmeiras’ base consumes at least ten times more.
The work at Ibrachina is very simple and objective. Five years ago, Chinese businessmen, owners of stores on the famous Rua 25 de Março, decided to invest in soccer.
They took advantage of the seriousness of the Brazil-China Cultural Institute, which has the participation of many Chinese investors in Brazil, and presented the plan to look for young talents in the favelas of Heliópolis and São Matheus. To then resell them.
In five years, Ibrachina created the under-15, under-17 and under-20 categories. The Law family dominates the club.
The president is Henrique Law, son of Law King Chang, who was investigated for smuggling by the Piracy CPI, commanded by the São Paulo City Council. King Chang was arrested twice by the Federal Police.
Ibrachina’s activities continue legally. The money for the club’s activities comes, according to Henrique Law, from investors, many of whom own stores on Rua 25 de Março.
Ibrachina even has a small stadium, in the middle of Mooca, for 600 people, where the teams play.
The small club eliminated, in addition to Palmeiras, Atlético Mineiro and Internacional, from the Copa São Paulo. It’s in the unprecedented semi-final. And will face the São Paulo.
While there is a party at Mooca, Palmeiras evaluates what to do after the embarrassing defeat.
Lucas Andrade and his players get ready.
The disillusionment on the board begins with Leila Pereira…
The texts published here do not reflect necessarily the opinion of the Record Group.
