Leeds United Manager Marcelo Bielsa says it’s impossible for South American football to be at par with European football

Leeds United Manager Marcelo Bielsa says it’s impossible for South American football to be at par with European football

Marcelo Bielsa currently managing Leeds United, thinks that the level that the European football has reached now, it’s currently impossible for the South American football to make up that gap. There was a time when clubs like Palmeiras, Santos, River Plate, Boca Juniors gave neck to neck competition to the top clubs from the European football. Things after started to go south for some years now and the level of the South American football has declined drastically.

“The gap is so big. It’s impossible for South American football to be at the same level as Europe. If you look, South American leagues are providing fewer and fewer players for Europe because players are leaving their countries of origin before they have shone for the clubs they belong to,” Bielsa told Sky Sports.

Young talents have stopped coming up from South American football

Santos FC
SANTOS FC

South American football has produced many great players into the football World. Players like Riquelme (Boca Juniors), Tevez (Boca Juniors), Crespo(River Plate) and many others were one of a kind who came up from the South American football and showcased great talent into the world and the European football. But now such talents have stopped coming up because most of the young players are taken away from South America into the European football before they complete their nurturing in their own country.

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“The only thing that does is harm everyone. If you buy a player of 15 years old, the formative process that player has to go through in the place where they were born, in the club they belong to, in the league they know, is disrupted,” Bielsa explained

“If you put him in a completely different and unknown place, instead of helping his development, you interrupt it. It is something which isn’t investigated much, but the South American clubs often aren’t the owners of these players. The players play for the clubs but they aren’t the actual owners of them. Players of 15 years old have different owners to the clubs they belong to. It’s a sad reality and it is difficult to explain.”

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