Chapter 7: The Sleeping Tigers of São Paulo

The São Paulo youth team was getting ready for the São Paulo Youth Cup, the biggest youth football tournament in the world. It had been running for 31 years already. The 32nd edition was about to start, with 88 clubs from all 26 states and the federal district of Brazil sending their youth teams to play. 

This cup was very important in Brazil, and São Paulo's youth team had won it last year. As the defending champions, the club cared a lot about doing well again.

Kaka was the backup to Harrison, the team captain. He should have been training hard to prepare for the upcoming tournament. 

However, Kaka wasn't thinking about the youth cup anymore. Something bigger was happening.

The Rio-São Paulo Championship for the professional teams had already begun. Several players on São Paulo's first team were injured, so they didn't have enough players to play in both the championship and the regular league season at the same time. The head coach of the first team, Vanderlei Luxemburgo, had to quickly call up some players from the youth team.

Luxemburgo really needed a midfielder, so his first choice was Harrison, the standout central midfielder from the youth team. But Edinho, the youth team coach, refused to release Harrison. With no other option, Luxemburgo had to pick a reserve instead.

Just like before, Kaka was unexpectedly chosen, going from an outsider on the youth team to joining the elite first team...as a substitute player. 

A young striker named Burgess also got called up with Kaka. While their teammates looked on jealously, Kaka and Burgess said goodbye and reported for first team duty the next day.

After leaving the youth team, Kaka never went back.

...

The next morning, as usual, Luxemburgo arrived early at the training grounds.

São Paulo was one of the top clubs in Brazil's professional league. But they weren't doing well this season, and with all the injuries, Luxemburgo was under a lot of pressure as the head coach. He was always the first one there.

But when Luxemburgo arrived, he was surprised to see someone already running laps on the pitch. 

Luxemburgo was puzzled. He knew how most of his players thought and worked - if they showed up on time for training, it was a small miracle. 

Showing up early? Unheard of!

After watching for a while, Luxemburgo didn't go over. Instead he went to his office and made himself a cup of coffee first. Then he took out a player report on Kaka from his desk.

He had recognized Kaka right away running on the pitch. Luxemburgo had only skimmed this scouting report yesterday, planning to have his assistant coach review it in detail today. Combined with watching Kaka and Burgess practice, they would make a training plan for the new callups. But since Kaka had caught his eye by coming so early, Luxemburgo decided to take a closer look himself. 

No coach disliked a hard-working young player.

The report on Kaka was very detailed since he came from São Paulo's own youth academy. It evaluated every part of his game across over a dozen pages. With his experience, Luxemburgo could quickly skip over the less important parts and focus on the key points:

"Quick dribbling speed, excellent long-range shooting, passing and defending need some work...Just returned last month after being injured for over 3 months, hasn't played a game in that time but trains extremely hard, often doing extra...Outstanding potential, recommend focusing on his development..."

Sipping his coffee by the window, Luxemburgo watched the young man now practicing his long-range shooting. Satisfied, he stroked his chin and took another sip.

Only to immediately make a disgusted face - he had forgotten to add any sugar!

... 

The rest of the first team players slowly arrived, and an eventful day of training was about to begin.

Captain Chenille came into the locker room with Burgess and the sweat-drenched Kaka. After clapping to get everyone's attention, he said "These are the new guys called up from the youth team. Let's give them a warm welcome."

Their new teammates responded with a decent level of enthusiasm, with some even applauding.

"Hello everyone, I'm Burgess, a striker," Burgess said, relieved by the pretty good reception.

"Hi, I'm Ricardo, I play midfield," Kaka followed. "But you can also call me Kaka." 

As players in the same club system, they felt a bit of familiarity with each other already, especially Kaka whose unique appearance made him stand out among Brazilians. Many of the guys greeted Kaka in a friendly way. 

Chenille then introduced the other players to the new callups. In Brazil it was common to use nicknames rather than full names, so the names Kaka heard may not have been their real ones.

"This is our left back, Renaldo." 

"Our center backs, Lugano and Amelio."

"And this is our striker Luis Fabiano. He just joined us recently too, so he's also new."

"Fabiano?" Kaka was surprised. 

Taking a closer look, it was definitely the same person. 

Kaka had seen Luis Fabiano, who would go on to star for Sevilla, on TV before even though he looked much younger here. In the years after the legendary Ronaldo, aside from Adriano, Luis Fabiano was one of the better Brazilian #9 strikers while others failed to live up to the iconic number.

Of course, the 20-year-old Luis Fabiano had no idea he would become Brazil's top striker one day. He had just joined São Paulo on loan from the French club Rennes, so he was a newcomer to the team as well. With his focus on training, Kaka hadn't realized this familiar face was now a teammate.

But there was another future superstar on the squad that Kaka was well aware of - Baptista, the beast who would later play for Real Madrid and Arsenal. For now he was still a defensive midfielder, before his full attacking abilities emerged. 

With Luis Fabiano, Baptista, and Kaka himself, São Paulo alone already had three players with unlimited potential assembled, truly living up to Brazil's reputation as a football powerhouse.

After quick introductions, everyone left the locker room together and headed to the practice pitch, where training equipment had been set up with Luxemburgo and his assistants waiting. 

"Alright guys, gather round," an assistant coach called out, waving a folder.

The players slowly formed a line. 

"You've all met the new guys Ricardo and Burgess, right?" Luxemburgo said.

"We introduced them," Chenille confirmed. 

"Good. No more chit-chat, let's start training." This head coach seemed all business, not wanting to waste a single minute. 

The session began with warm-ups, followed by drills to practice tactics, strategy walkthroughs, and finally splitting into teams for small-sided games.

(End of Chapter)