Making an All-Time Brazil team is as enjoyable as it is difficult. You can’t field a team with 11 playmakers and forwards. So hard choices have to be made. We all love Socrates, but was he better than Zico? What’s more important: Romario’s longevity or Ronaldo’s peak brilliance? What to do with the old masters Zizinho and Leonidas?
Throughout the years, there have been several attempts to make an All-Time Brazil team.
In 1994, the newspaper Folha de São Paulo came up with this formation:
Folha de São Paulo’s version
It’s a formation that puts, perhaps, an excessive prime on old age. Of the 11 players, 9 were active in a World Cup from the 1950′s or earlier. It reserves central places for legends of the era before television: Zizinho, Da Guia and Leonidas. In addition, six players from the 1958 side are featured.
Three years later, Placar magazine had their own take:
Placar’s version
Compared to the previous team, it makes only a few changes. It takes out central defender Luis Pereira – a player best known for a karate kick foul on Johan Neeskens – and brings in Djalma Santos. Given that Djalma has 98 caps and was a member of three World Cup All Star Teams, compared to only 38 caps and 1 World Cup for Luis Pereira, that seems like a justified decision. It does mean that Carlos Alberto is moved to the centre – but that is a spot where he could play superbly as well. The only other change made is replacing 1958 DM Zito with the midfield master of the 1970 team: Gerson.
Two years later, in 1998, the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo created a completely different team:
O Estado de São Paulo’s version
This side upsets the balance between the generations. It drops all the pre-historic names (Da Guia, Zizinho, Leonidas), several 1958 stars (Zito, Djalma) and replaces them with legends from the 70′s (Rivelino, Gerson, Tostão, Pereira), and 80′s (Falcão and Zico). There’s just one problem: the team is unrealistic. A 3-3-4 with the forward Tostão on midfield flouts the rule that ideal formations should be able to ‘work’.
With all three teams have their own issues. And what’s worse, since the creation of these team, Romario, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka have all been voted World Player of the Year. Should any of them be included?
The classic football expert ‘Dearman’ thinks only Ronaldo does. His formation, made last year, looks as follows:
Dearman’s version
It uses the same defense as Placar magazine, which in my opinion as well is the best defense possible for Brazil. While a 3 man defense can be tempting, Brazil’s tradition of attacking wing backs requires a 4 man back line. On midfield, the legendary Didi is untouchable. Falcao gets a spot over Gerson and Zito, while Zico is prefered over Zizinho. In attack, the inevitable Pelé and Garrincha are now supporting Ronaldo.
This, in my opinion, is the best possible All-Time Brazil team. It strikes a great balance across the generations, makes sense tactically and has great picks for every position. One could argue that Romario’s twenty year career merits a pick, but he truly only played one season (93/94) at the highest level. Ronaldo in his peak form – with his superior speed, dribbling skills, work rate and physique – was well beyond what Romario achieved during 95% of his career.
The other hard choice is Zico versus Zizinho. Both, coincidentally, were the symbol of a losing side. Zizinho was the star of the 1950 disaster, and Zico the icon of the 1982 beautiful failure. Zico however gets the nodge for me, for his amazing free kicks, his scoring rate (52 goals for Brazil in 72 games) and above all, the fact that only myths and stories attest to Zizinho’s claim to greatness, whereas with Zico we can easily verify his genius by watching a few classic games. Zizinho does, however, merit a place in the reserve team:
B-team
It speaks volumes about Brazil’s incredible pool of talent that fabulous players like Socrates, Rivelino, Rivaldo and Jairzinho are even benched for this B-team.
Agree or disagree? Post your own formation or comments in the box below.
#1 by indie2k5 on November 15, 2011 - 18:13
in the A team:
take out those jurassic guys from sidebacks and put carlos alberto and roberto carlos.
put mauro galvão in the central defense.
in the B team:
take zizinho out and move gerson to his spot, more in the center.
move ronaldinho to the wing.
put junior on the leftback.
get cafu and put him in the worst brazilian XI of all time.
done.
#2 by indie2k5 on November 15, 2011 - 18:15
forgot to say in the post above, include dunga in the midfield.
#3 by flavio on November 15, 2011 - 22:34
i wouldnt put roberto carlos in that team..
#4 by flavio on November 15, 2011 - 22:38
hes overrated
î liked placar and estado de sao paulo’s version
thanks for the post! im brazilian from sao paulo and i didnt get to know these formations
#5 by Jurgen on November 16, 2011 - 01:15
Always hard to judge the quality of these 1950 and earlier players. When I see footage of football from those days it looks clumsy. Zizinho was good for his time, but did he have Ronaldinho’s skills?
#6 by pank on December 1, 2011 - 11:48
great work.it’s really a tough job to select all time brazil team……
#7 by John Young on December 4, 2011 - 22:14
Edinho would be my first choice central defender. Also, Nilton Santos at left back over Roberto Carlos any day of the week. Tough to pick between Didi & Gerson for the midfield general spot.
However, these line-ups always seem a bit wrong to me because I always see them as units
For me no midfield will be so easy on the eye as Socrates-Falcao-Cerezo from 1982.
And Pele-Tostao-Gerson-Rivelino-Jairzinho. You just can’t break up that front 5
#8 by no on December 9, 2011 - 08:44
rivaldo-ronaldo-romario
pele-zico-ronaldinho
carlos-aldair-baiano-cafu
taffarel
#9 by leandro veloso on January 30, 2012 - 01:49
wow, great work!I´m brazilian and I see that you do great researches on this brazil all time squad. I only could think about one important change: switch ronaldo for romario on the team A. Romario has a better record for the national team(70games/55goals) and gave us a copa america after 40 years(1989) and a world cup playing alongside bebeto(great player) and average players. ronaldo played in WC2002 alongside legends like rivaldo, ronaldinho, cafu and roberto carlos. and, IMO, rivaldo was the best player in the WC2002.but anyway, ronaldo was amazing fot he national team too, I understand your point
#10 by Blanka797 on February 5, 2012 - 21:17
My 23 choice :
Ronaldo-Garrincha (sub: Romario-Leonidas)
Pele- Zico (sub: Rivelino- Ronaldinho- Rivaldo)
Didi – Dunga (sub: Gerson- Zizinho)
R. Carlos – Lucio – T. Silva – Cafu (sub: Nilton- Domingos – C. Albrto- Djalma)
Julio Cesar- Gilmar
#11 by Blanka797 on February 5, 2012 - 23:58
Res 9 :
Arthur – Tostao – Jairzinho
Kaka – Socrates
Falcao – Cerezo
Dani Alves – Maicon
#12 by Blanka797 on February 6, 2012 - 00:30
Pele : The best of all time
Ronaldo : The best striker and soloists ever
Garrincha : One of the best dribblers with Maradona
Zico : The best F.K and one of the best playmakers and passers with great scoring ability
Ronaldinho : The most skillful player ever
Rivaldo : The best shooting technique with Van Basten
Romario : One of the best finishers of all time
Roberto Carlos : The best left back who supports attacks ever
#13 by Romi Bird on February 9, 2012 - 14:58
Great formation
I would add 2 players : Ademir(CF)-Luis Periera(DF)
#14 by John on February 28, 2012 - 22:40
Romario-Pele-Ronaldo
—–Ronalindho—-
Rivelino-Socrates-Zico
Aldair-Luscio-Cafu
J Cesar
#15 by Shaf on March 19, 2012 - 05:38
My XI:
GK Gilmar; DF Nilton Santos, Carlos Alberto, Aldair, Djalma Santos; MF Didi, Falcao, Zico FW: Pele, Ronaldo, Garrincha
#16 by JGGott on May 19, 2012 - 17:23
Believe me. NO ONE can make a better Brazil team than mine:
DEFENSE
1) GK: Gilmar – most important Brazilian goalkeeper ever. WC participations: 1958, 1962, 1966
2) Right Wingback: Carlos Alberto Torres – although he also played as a centre back defender, he peaked when he was the right back for Brazil, in 1970. He was chosen to be the fullback of FIFA’s World Team of the 20th Century. I could have picked Djalma Santos for the positon too (they were both equally good), but I chose Carlos Alberto because he was the ultimate captain for the team. WC participation: 1970 (Sorry, but there’s simply no space for Cafu, Nelinho and Leandro here).
3) Centre back: Luís Pereira – too great to be forgotten (Mauro Ramos could be a good choice too). WC participation: 1974
4) Centre back: Domingos da Guia. The greatest centre back Brazil has ever had, by far. WC participation: 1938
6) Left Wingback: Nílton Santos – not only the best ever at that position in Brazil, but in the world. He revolutionized the way fullbacks and wingbacks were meant to play. Also chosen to be the fullback of FIFA’s World Team of the 20th Century. Roberto Carlos would have to sit on the bench in this case, simple as that. Junior (1982 squad), would come as the natural 3rd substitute. WC participations: 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962
MIDFIELD
5) Defensive Midfielder: Falcão – the “Pelé of all the ‘volantes’” was chosen best Brazilian player of the 1982 WC. WC participations:1982, 1986
8) Central Midfielder: Didi – the greatest midfielder of his era, he invented the “dry-leaf” free kick (Gérson on the bench here). WC participations: 1954, 1958, 1962
11) Attacking Midfielder: Zico – known as the “white Pelé”, he is considered Brazil’s second greatest player ever, behind Pelé only, who also asserted that, if there was ever a player that came close to playing football like he did, that player was Zico. WC participations: 1978, 1982, 1986
FORWARD
7) Garrincha – also widely considered the second greatest Brazilian player ever and the greatest dribbler in History; he is the main responsible for Brazil winning their second consecutive World Cup, in 1962. WC participations: 1958, 1962, 1966
10) Pelé – usually called the greatest, best (officially), most complete and most important football player in the world of all time. Hands down to this guy, in the centuries to come, people will still talk about him and his accomplishments. A common quote about him is that “he’s not from this planet”. Simply “The King of Football”. WC participations: 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970
9) Striker: Ronaldo – the greatest modern player (together with Zidane) and the best striker the world has ever seen. When you think of a perfect numer 9, with everything it takes to make him a “pure” striker and a goal scoring machine, don’t be surprised if the name Ronaldo pops up into your mind. He is the highest goal scorer in the history of the World Cup. WC participations: 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 (I’m afraid Romário would have to sit on the bench for him).
I defy anyone to make a better squad.