Roy Hodgson believes Brazil’s best players can no longer go into a World Cup as unknown quantities.
The England manager expects the majority of Luiz Felipe Scolari’s squad to be made up of European-based players and doesn’t think they will surprise fans in the way the likes of Pelé and Mané Garrincha have in the past.
“The Brazil team will probably have very few players in it that are actually playing in Brazil,” Hodgson told FIFA.com. “The Uruguayans and the Argentinians probably don’t have many that are playing there.
“To some extent, it’s not like in the past where the Brazilians are unknown outside of Brazil until the World Cup came around. Garrincha and Pelé were playing in their club teams and were very famous in Brazil but they only became really, really famous every four years when they stepped onto the field at the World Cup. We don’t have that any more.
“Everyone could probably go around to a football lover in England and ask: ‘Could you name the Brazilian team? Or, ‘could you give me a good idea of what the Brazilian team is?’ And they would be able to do so in this country because about half of them will have played in England or play in England and the others they’ll have seen in the Champions League playing against English teams.”
