The new Corinthians values
SAO PAULO, Brazil - After leaving Fluminense as a teenager and winning the Champions League with Porto in his first full season, midfielder Carlos Alberto had no intention of returning home to the chaos that is Brazilian domestic football.
But when Corinthians came along with a outstanding financial package and a promise to sign enough big names to win the Sao Paulo club the nickname 'the galacticos' the happy-go-lucky midfielder could not say no.
'I never thought about returning to Brazil ever,' said the man whose goal in the final against Monaco put Porto on their way to the Europe's most coveted trophy. 'But after a marvellous year, I received a great offer from Corinthians to come home, to be in my own country, close to my family.'
'They got in touch and I told them that my dream was playing in Europe and that if they wanted me to come back then the financial offer would have to be good. They started out offering me the same deal I had with Porto and I wasn't interested so they came back with another offer better than the one I had in Europe and here I am.'
Just a few months ago it would have been inconceivable to think a Brazilian club could match the salaries offered by one of Europe's giants. But since November, when Iranian-born, London-based businessman Kia Joorabchian bought the rights to run Corinthians for 10 years, great financial offers have lured several big names to St George's Park.
In addition to paying Porto £4.5m for Carlos Alberto, Joorabchian's Media Sport Investment (MSI) spent £1.7m to bring midfielder Roger home from Benfica and almost £1m to capture full-back Gustavo Nery from Werder Bremen.
But the main focus has been on neighbours Argentina and reversing the flow of talented South Americans heading to Europe. In signing Carlos Tevez from Boca Juniors for a South American record fee of £12m, Corinthians beat off competition from Spanish, Italian and German sides.
They also signed central defender Sebastian Dominguez from Newell's Old Boys for £1.4m and agreed to pay River Plate £8.5m for highly rated midfielder Javier Mascherano whenever River are knocked out of the Copa Libertadores.
The spending spree has established Corinthians as the Chelsea of South America and not only because of consistent rumours over links between Joorabchian and one-time business partner Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. The biggest difference between the two is that while the Londoners' new signings have taken them to the brink of the Premiership and the Champions League, Corinthians' new boys have struggled to find their feet.
| “ | Corinthians is one of the biggest if not the biggest club in the world. ” | |
| — Carlos Alberto |
The team lies third in the Paulista state championship, with just 26 points from 14 games, and is on the verge of going out the Copa do Brasil, a tournament that carries extra weight because the winner gains automatic entry into next year's Copa Libertadores.
New manager Daniel Passarella is working hard to find a way to mould his disparate squad into a tight-knit team but the pressure is constant and even Carlos Alberto, who carried Fluminense's hopes on his shoulders as a teenager and was a star of the Porto midfield throughout their best European campaign in decades, admits the pressure he felt at those clubs is nothing to the strain he feels at Corinthians.
'The attention is always on us here,' he said shortly after a training session at the club's headquarters.
'I played at Fluminense where it was a lot worse than here because off the field the financial state of the club wasn't good and so in addition to having problems on the field we had a lot of problems to deal with off it.'
'(But) there's a lot more pressure here because Corinthians is one of the biggest if not the biggest club in the world. These things take time.'
The chirpy 20-year old is nevertheless aware that time is something big Brazilian clubs never have much of. Unlike in European football, where the word crisis is rarely mentioned, the blanket coverage afforded to the game in Brazil and the hysterical behaviour of fans means players and managers cannot have a couple of bad games without speculation mounting over their future.
A comfortable 2-0 win over arch rivals Palmeiras last weekend went some way to easing the pressure on Corinthians but the tension in the squad is apparent, especially between the locals and the new boys, particularly the Argentines.
A year in Europe introduced Carlos Alberto to the joys and pitfalls of a cosmopolitan playing staff and he is confident he can help from the younger members of the squad will learn to live with the new arrivals.
'At Porto there were Africans, an Argentine, a Spaniard, a Frenchman and when we were all together we understood each other,' he said.
'I knew most of the players (when I came here) because we had played together for Brazil at some level, in the Brazilian side, the under-17s, under-20s, under-23s. That made things much easier, we knew each other. Getting the others involved is just a matter of time. There's a good atmosphere here. People get on.'
If they manage to get on like Carlos Alberto has got on, Corinthians will do just fine.
