Before they head back to Brazil, we caught up quickly with Red Bull Bragantino’s head of development to find out about their time in Europe.
As the head of development what is your day to day life like?
I have actually a busy schedule, I need to watch the matches, watch the training sessions as much as I can and I have meetings with all the departments of the academy; So, social service, player care, performance, technical - so we coordinate all of these departments and this is actually quite busy, but it's so nice because we can be in touch with all of our players. We can also hire good players when they are scouted so actually, this is kind of my schedule on a daily basis.
You’ve come all the way from Brazil to be with us here in the Netherlands - How has it been for you?
It’s our second time in Eindhoven, we had a really nice trip and it’s a beautiful country. We love also this weather, it's something we are used to. It’s been a really amazing experience for both us from the staff and also the boys because of the level of the games, the teams that are playing we are not used to, so it’s been great. Amazing experience!
How different is the football in Brazil to what's being played here in Europe?
We have two main championships: the National championship in Brazil where we play under 20 and under 17 games against the biggest teams in the Brazilian first division, and we also have the regional championship; that is a strong championship as well but not of course at the level of teams that are playing here.
We've watched Red bull play some great quick football – how easy is it to try and play like that against European sides?
We have tried to mix some Brazilian football, especially on the ball with dribbling and skills, with some Red Bull basics on the playing style. Regarding, against the ball, aggressiveness, pressing etc; for a long time we tried to develop this in our academy and hopefully we can continue to show us enjoying and playing some fascinating football.
We've been talking a lot with all the teams here in Eindhoven about some of the rule changes that are in place at the Otten Innovation Cup. How are you finding them?
Some of them are really different in my opinion. The clock stopping is really, really amazing. In our South American football, the players, when they have a foul stay on the floor and the clock is going on so we lose a lot of time. I think for the development of the players it is nice because they can suffer a fault and still play quickly, so this is really, really interesting. Some of the rules I'm not sure that they could be adaptable for a high level football, but of course, for the boys, it's interesting to change their mindset during the games. Today for example, Sunday, we suffered a goal following a quick fall of a player and then Atlético Madrid scored. But that's the rule of the tournament. The boys need to be quick in their mindset.
Do you think you'll take away some of the rules and implement them into any of the training back in Brazil?
I'm not sure about the training, but maybe in our tournament that we are planning we will maybe try to emulate some of them. Perhaps the rolling subs as it's nice for the players to play in more than one position during the match, and maybe also the clock stopping, but of course we will take some ideas from this competition back to Brazil.
Thank you for returning to the Otten Innovation Cup once more – we’re so pleased to have you back.
Thank you for the invitation again, the tournament is really nice and the partnership between Red Bull and PSV is increasing each year, so for us it's a pleasure to be invited and to be here one more year. We hope to be here again, maybe playing the finals against PSV! This year it was not possible, but that's football!