The Brasileirao is born, the most competitive tournament on the continent which will have 31 Argentinians and the arrival of Sampaoli

With 31 Argentine footballers distributed in 17 of the 20 participating clubs and the recent arrival of George Sampaolithe most powerful soccer league in America, the brazilianwill begin its 67th edition this Saturday, in which Palmeiras will begin against Cuiabá the difficult task of defending the title against very powerful candidates, although in some cases conflicting, such as Flamengo, and others who will try to surprise, such as Atlético Mineiro and Fluminense.

He Verdao are the most successful team in this competition (they have won it 11 times) and aim to add a new star with a squad that features few new faces and without two key men last season: midfielders Danilo and Gustavo Scarpa (considered the best last tournament player) were acquired by England’s Nottingham Forest.

“I’m used to doing more with less. Fortunately we have many resources, the club gives us many conditions”, highlighted the Portuguese Abel Ferreira, coach of the São Paulo team, which maintains in its squad the basis of the team that won the 2020 and 2021 editions of the Copa Libertadores. They were joined last year by one of the great promises of world football: the striker Endrick.

The 16-year-old has already been signed by Real Madrid for €72m, although he will only leave for Spain when he turns 18 in July 2024. This year he has overcome a weak start to the season and scored two of the five goals with which his side beat modest Água Santa in the final of the Paulista Championship which ended on Sunday. In January, Palmeiras, which includes Corrientes’ José Manuel López, won the Brazilian Super Cup after beating Flamengo.

only the Fla (one of the three teams that have no Argentinian players, along with Cruzeiro and Cuiabá) seems to be the other team in terms of results in 2023, since they not only lost that Super Cup, but also came up empty-handed in the Recopa Sudamericana (lost against Independiente del Valle), the Club World Cup (lost in the semi-final against Saudi Al-Hilal) and the Carioca Championship (defeated in the final by Fluminense on Sunday).

That loss to his arch-rival led to the sacking on Tuesday of his coach, Portugal’s Vítor Pereira, who had replaced Dorival Júnior, commander of the 2022 Libertadores and Copa do Brasil titles, and the arrival this Friday of Jorge Sampaolirecently launched in the Seville of Spain.

Beyond this crisis, the Mengão It has an elite squad, with figures like Gabriel Barbosa, Pedro, Bruno Henrique, Everton Ribeiro, Uruguayan Giorgian de Arrascaeta and Chilean Arturo Vidal, so it cannot be ruled out as a candidate for the crown.

Even with a heavy roster, Atlético Mineiro de Eduardo Coudet (one of the three Argentine coaches, together with Juan Pablo Vojvoda at Fortaleza) wants to embroider his third star by appealing to what remains of the structure that allowed him to win his first championship in half a century in 2021. Beyond a few sparks with the management, the chacho He has been able to build a balanced team that has a fearsome attack, with the veteran Hulk as the banner and with Matías Zaracho as one of his best companions.

With fewer resources and a team without many stars, one of the silent contenders is Fluminense, which has not won the national tournament since 2012. The team led by Fernando Diniz seduces with its good game and has a relentless scorer: Germán Cano. The former Colón player was top scorer in 2022 of the top 100 national leagues in the world and this year, with his 16 screams, he led the table floo to the title in the Carioca Championship.

A step further back, the race begins Inter de Porto Alegre, runners-up of the Brasileirão in 2022, Athletico Paranaense and Corinthians, also aspiring to fight at the top. Instead, São Paulo and Saints are going through a deep economic crisis and they will hardly be protagonists. For its part, Gremio, on its return to the first division, pins its hopes on the goals of Uruguayan Luis Suárez.

As in recent years, the Brazilian market has reopened this season for Argentine players, who are already 31 in the top flight. Several have landed in recent weeks, such as Rodrigo Battaglia (Atletico Mineiro) or Leonel Di Placido (Botafogo), who will play for the first time against Brasileirão.

Others already have a good run in this country, such as Germán Cano, Víctor Cuesta (Botafogo) or Walter Kannemann, who wore the Gremio kit for seven years, with whom he had dissimilar experiences such as winning the Copa Libertadores in 2017 and relegation in 2021.

The 31 Argentines who will play the Brasileirão

• Emmanuel Martinez (America of Minas Gerais)

• Martin Benitez (America of Minas Gerais)

• Tomas Cuello (Atletico Paranaense)

• Renzo Saravia (Atletico Mineiro)

• Rodrigo Battaglia (Atletico Mineiro)

• Matias Zaracho (Atletico Mineiro)

• Cristian Pavon (Atletico Mineiro)

• Lucas Mugni (Baia)

• Victor Cuesta (Botafogo)

• Joel Carli (Botafogo)

• Leonel Di Placido (Botafogo)

• Fausto Vera (Corinthians)

• Marcelino Moreno (Coritiba)

• German Cano (Fluminense)

• Emanuel Britez (Fortress)

• Tomás Pochettino (Fortress)

• Juan Martin Lucero (Fortress)

• Silvio Romero (Fortress)

• Julian Palacios (Goias)

• Walter Kannemann (Guild)

• Franco Cristaldo (Guild)

• Fabricio Bustos (International)

• Gabriel Market (International)

• Jose Manuel Lopez (Palmeiras)

• Kevin Lomonaco (Red Bull Bragantino)

• Gabriel Carabajal (Saints)

• Alan Franco (São Paulo)

• Giuliano Galoppo (São Paulo)

• Jonathan Calleri (San Pablo)

• Manuel Capasso (Vasco de Gama)

• Luca Orellano (Vasco da Gama)