Former Netherlands international Ronald de Boer has backed Brazil to give a strong showing on home soil ahead of the 2014 World Cup.
De Boer believes that Brazil will go into the tournament as one of the favourites and is impressed with the emergence of young talents.
Speaking at the Soccerex conference in Rio de Janeiro: “Brazil will always be one of the favourites, especially with the next World Cup at home for them. The likes of Neymar, Lucas, Oscar. So many great players. It’s always a joy to watch.”
He admitted that the Netherlands need to work hard at improving their team with youth talent ahead of the World Cup.
“There is a trend now in the Netherlands where we have to be creative. What we see now with Ajax and the new philosophy of Johan Cruyff, we mustn’t be satisfied now with youth players that are good, they must be excellent.
“We think that we can create and develop players that you see in Barcelona, because we are almost the creators of Barcelona, with Cruyff, Frank Rijkaard, Louis van Gaal, with total football.”
