Red Bull Brasil has been a football club on the up and up ever since they first got the ball rolling in 2008. Back-to-back promotions has seen the team climbing towards their target of playing in the Brazilian first division.
Youth academy director Carlos Andrade has been with the team since kick-off so we asked him for the secret behind the success of Red Bull Brasil…
After hanging up your boots you starting a coaching career which took you to South Korea. What attracted you back home after working in Asia?
It’s true, I worked for four years in South Korea and had a great time over there. It was good to exchange ideas and the experience definitely made me a better coach. The call then came from Red Bull Brasil in 2008 when the team was first created. I spoke with Paulo Sergio, the first head coach of the team. As a player, Paulo was a World Cup winner with Brazil in 1994 and also a Champions League winner with Bayern Munich in 2001. The opportunity to work with Paulo and a completely new team was too exciting to turn down. I remember thinking to myself, “Red Bull involved with Brazilian football? For sure this will be an interesting project!”
No hesitations about joining a new team in the bottom league of Brazilian football?
We began in the Campeonato Paulista Segunda Divisao which is many leagues below the top division in Brazil. What I found attractive about the completely fresh start was having the chance to shape the team exactly how we wanted. We came up with four key elements that we wanted to be at the heart of everything we do. The four elements are honesty, character, transparency and fair play. We stress to our players the need to work hard to uphold these codes and this has been the cornerstone of our success.
As the academy director how does it feel when one of your young players leaves to join the first team?
How can describe the pride I feel when one of the boys makes the step up to the first team? I can only compare it to the relationship between a father and a son. It’s a great feeling to see a young player take his chance and it also gives me extra faith in the project we’re working with. I have a great relationship with Marcio Fernandes, the current first team head coach, and we are always discussing the players in both squads. We also watch lots of games together as well as sharing training sessions.
Last season ended with defeat in the final of the Copa Paulista, how did you pick the players up after this disappointment?
It was not so difficult to refocus because the priority of the club is to do well in league competition. We may have lost the cup but we won the league and gained promotion to the Paulista A-2 Divisao. Now this year it’s all about getting promotion again. To help us with our latest challenge 12 new players have arrived at the club. All of the new players have experience of playing at a very high level of competition. I’m excited to see the new players gelling with the existing team. Another great asset we have is our Estadio Moises Lucarelli, last year we scored our 100th goal at the stadium. It’s important that opponents get a sense of fear when they come to our stadium. We need to prove we are invincible at home.
So what is the ultimate goal for Red Bull Brasil?
We want our first team to be playing in Brazil’s top division by 2015 but we still require four more promotions to make that possible. When we reach the top division we also want to get into the Copa Libertadores as soon as possible. In terms of the academy, we hope to keep producing players not only for Red Bull Brasil but also for the teams in New York, Salzburg and Leipzig. I have just returned from a trip to Austria where we transferred André Ramalho, a young Brazilian player, over to the Red Bull Salzburg academy. We are all very interested to see how André develops his game in Europe, he is a skillful attacking midfielder who idolises Kaka. One day soon we will hopefully see André playing Champions League football for Red Bull Salzburg.
And what else is hot right now in Brazilian football?
I’m enjoying watching Neymar playing with Santos. He is a teenage attacker with lots of pace and hopefully he can have a great career with the national team. Another youngster who has impressed me is Lucas of Sao Paulo. Both Neymar and Lucas have been playing for Brazil in the South American under-20 Championships and should feature in the Brazilian team for the 2012 Olympics in London. Everyone in Brazil is extremely excited about hosting the next World Cup in 2014. Football has a truly special place in the heart of Brazilians. Last time we hosted the World Cup we lost the final to Uruguay and that was a disaster. Believe me when I say that a repeat of that defeat will not be allowed to happen again.
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