The departure of Fabio do Cruzeiro reveals the changes in the era of the SAF in Brazil; An investor in Botafogo has laid off its Crystal Palace veterans

He is 41 years old and is close to completing a thousand matches for Sea tripAnd Fabio It became the first symbol of the inevitable change caused by football companies In Brazil: An amateur leader’s sentimental view exchanged for the pragmatism of investors. The goalkeeper, with a contract until December 2022, announced his departure from the club after 17 years and 976 games.

“The SAF Cruzeiro team wants to end my career immediately, although I am in complete physical and technical condition to continue playing at a high level and help Cruzeiro. Only God can determine our time,” the athlete stated in a statement on social media.

The plan change happened after Ronaldo SAF purchase of Raposa is indicated. The group that will take over football has told the player that it wants to reduce the contract and end it in March after Mineiro. Fabio did not accept.

The message from Cruzeiro’s new managers was clear when the club, when announcing its 2022 cast on social networks, removed the player, even as the issue continued to be discussed.

Fabio stated that he suggested reducing his salary to the prescribed maximum, which the SAF did not accept.

change position

Perhaps this toughness did not come from a leader driven by passion: even with the stark scarcity of resources and the failure of B . series From 2021 Sergio Rodriguez The goalkeeper’s renewal took place last November, with football already switching from Raposa to SAF.

The way Cruzeiro’s new managers have approached the issue also reinforces a natural trajectory once investors turn to football: looking to rejuvenate the team, empowering players who can make future transfers by the table. And in this the old people, who have no sales potential, are eliminated.

John Textor, the American billionaire who came to the fore after indicating his desire to buy SAF from him Botafogo, tried to dismiss the veterans of Crystal PalaceThe English club he has coached since the end of the last European season. Seven of them over the age of 30, all at the end of their contract, were released to seek other clubs. Including Gary Cahill, 35 years old, established in his career.

“It is necessary to call those who are not productive and explain that a new story is being written,” he said. Marco Aurelio Cunha, the former director of Sao Paulo e cuff.

The pragmatism imagined in SAF must fully reach a practice still common in some Brazilian clubs: hiring former players, usually idols, to take up positions in the football department, where it is not clear if it is due to traits of gifts or gratitude from the past. . The story doesn’t go away, but it doesn’t pay the bills either.