Former Brazil coach, Carlos Parreira, on Thursday in Moscow said having talented footballers was no longer enough to help a team win the FIFA World Cup.
Parreira, full name Carlos Alberto Gomes Parreira, told reporters covering the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia that world football has grown tremendously over the years.
He said: “Football has grown so much nowadays that it is no longer enough for you to just know the problem, but how to solve it.
“This means it is now very difficult to win the World Cup, because you can’t just have the talented players and expect to win the competition.’’
The Brazilian, who heads the competition’s Technical Study Group at Russia 2018, said more ingredients now go into putting together a successful team at the World Cup finals.
He said: “You need to have the players with passion, abilities, hunger and commitment, and these have to go with good organisation and remarkable structure.”
Parreira said the Brazil team of 2006 which he led was a good example of a team with only the best players without the right ingredients.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the team which were the competition’s defending champions then beat Croatia, Australia and Japan 1-0, 2-0 and 4-1 respectively in the group stage.
With Ronaldo, Robinho, Adriano, Kaka, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, Gilberto Silva, Emerson, Cafu and Dida, the team looked so solid as it went on to beat Ghana 3-0 in the Second Round.
But it was brought down to earth in the quarter-finals as a Thierry Henry second half goal gave France a 1-0 victory in Frankfurt.
He said: “It was a good team, a good collection of talents, but it did not have the hunger. That was essential, but it was not there.
“So, there are times you will have the best players, but they will not come to you for the World Cup in good shape because of club football in the past season.
“Since that team, Brazil are still dreaming of the next World Cup success. The best since then has been the semi-finals of 2014 at home.
“Maybe 2022 in Qatar will be better for us.’’
Parreira, a coaching staff member in Brazil’s title-winning team of 1970 in Mexico, later coached the team to its 1994 win in the US and later in 2006 at Germany.
He has also coached Kuwait (1982 in Spain), UAE (1990 in Italy), Saudi Arabia (1998 in France) and South Africa (2010 in South Africa).
Talents now not enough to win FIFA World Cup – Parreira
