The Brazilian national team is currently training to face Panama and Czech Republic in two friendlies as they prepare to host the Copa America this summer.
Taking a look at the squad list, there are many Premier League stars such as Alisson, Ederson, Danilo, Fabinho, Felipe Anderson, Roberto Firmino, Richarlison and Gabriel Jesus.
But there’s a very important Manchester City player missing, which is Fernandinho. The midfielder has been living a complicated situation since the World Cup, when he was blamed for Brazil’s defeat to Belgium in the quarter finals.
Fernandinho has been thinking of retiring from the national team at the age of 33, but people still try to change his mind, especially the national team staff.
Edu Gaspar, the former Arsenal midfielder who’s Brazil’s national team coordinator, has given an interview of over one hour to ESPN Brasil, and had a long explanation of how they’ve been taking care of Fernandinho’s situation.
“Technically speaking, first, Fernandinho plays very well. Not a little well,” Edu Gaspar told ESPN Brasil.
“He has a personal level of another level. Group athlete. An athlete… even though he was out, on the bench, like he was at the World Cup, he’s a guy who pulls, who brings the guys, who says ‘lets go’, who’s integrated, a willing guy, a guy who lends us many things.
“So what happened at the World Cup, we do not see being fair to him. So much so that we did not call him, not us, Tite did not call him right after the end of the World Cup, mainly to preserve him. Understanding to be important for him to breathe a little and understand how he was.
“We traveled to Manchester to talk to him. We left Brazil, went to Manchester to talk to Fernandinho. To understand how he was, understanding that he was an important athlete for us.
“So we invest our time understanding him to be a super important guy for us. I do not know for how long, even because of age. But for the short term, or medium term, we see Fernando as very important for us.”
Now with Copa America approaching and Fernandinho not being called up a single time since the World Cup, we wonder if the Manchester City player will be featuring in the tournament.
