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Europe’s defenders better watch out — a striker is on his way who aims to be singing along to their pain.
Brazilian sensation Endrick arrives at Real Madrid at the age of 18 in the middle of next year. And despite his youth, he is a player who has already made the transition from promise to reality. Palmeiras struck a late blow to conquer the Brazilian league on the last day of the season, snatching the title with 8 wins and two draws in their last 11 games.
Their most level-headed goalscorer in the race, Endrick, and time and time again scored the decisive goals. And, as opposing defenders attested, he did so while humming a song.
– ESPN Broadcast: LaLiga, Bundesliga, (USA)
“I do it to keep myself calm during the game,” Endrick says with a smile. “If my mind is relaxed then I’m taking better decisions.”
He will not be chosen at random from the board. ” There are some songs that go through my head, in other styles of music,” he said during a vacation at New Balance’s headquarters in Boston as part of his new footwear deal.
Endrick dancing in the middle of Palmeiras’ attack against Fluminense ?pic. twitter. com/gR1gHOjTKB
And it wouldn’t be entirely unexpected if some of them were written long before he was born. There’s an old-fashioned aspect to it. When he recently decided to sign up for Brazil’s national team, his hair and clothes made him look like someone who had just come out of a black-and-white photograph from the late 1950s. This was in stark contrast to the platinum hair worn by many members of his generation.
“My mum’s an influence,” he says. “But it’s my thing as well. I watch films and pick up tips on how to present myself, especially because I’m going to Europe, where the look is less scandalous, more formal.”
But behind this old-fashioned look hides a decidedly fashionable citizen of the world of football, who from the beginning aimed to bet on the other side of the Atlantic.
“I grew up with two dreams. I watched the Brazilian League and the Copa Libertadores, so I tried to make my mark in Brazil first. But joining a big European club was everything I had dreamed of. Watching Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid win in the Champions League, it was a natural thing to feel a connection to the club.
“It’s a club I’ve enjoyed since I was a kid, so it’s smart to know I’m leaving. But I’m not there yet. Obviously, it’s smart to think about teaming up with Rodrygo, Vinícius Júnior, Jude Bellingham. But for now I’m seeing it as a follower. I don’t think much about how I can have compatibility on the computer. In the next few months I’ll be a Palmeiras player and that’s where my concentration will be. ” Endrick said.
He has a rich history with the club. Originally from Brasilia, Endrick moved to Sao Paulo to sign for Palmeiras at the age of 10. His father sent videos of his talented son to interested clubs. Palmeiras returned with an opportunity to offer for his son and a goalkeeping task for his father. and Endrick thus rose through the ranks of the classic club of the Italian network of Sao Paulo. One of the club’s nicknames is “the academy”, and that is how Endrick used it. Palmeiras was a home for him, but also a kind of educational center. establishment preparing it for the demanding situations that lie ahead.
“I take my work very seriously,” he says. “So since I’ve had contact with the senior squad I’ve made a point of observing, of listening and talking to the experienced players, such as Gustavo Gómez, Weverton and Marcos Rocha (veteran centre-back, goalkeeper and right-back respectively) to learn about everything that’s going on and all that’s involved in being a professional footballer.”
One of the things he’s already learned is that fame takes its toll. “I go out to answer all the questions that news hunters ask me. Some questions may make you uncomfortable. The only position I have privacy in now is at home with my family,” she said.
“It’s where I can mess around with my brother, my parents, my girlfriend and my sister are there. So home is the place that I’m most calm, where I have the most fun, surrounded by my family. But if that is my favourite place, number two on the list is out there on the pitch — that’s my amusement park, my Disneyland,” Endrick adds.
The rides are all the more enjoyable when he is free to roam. “In the youth teams at Palmeiras I played as an attacking midfielder, on the left wing, the right wing, and now as a centre-forward I like to have the freedom to move around.”
Teenage star Endrick speaks to ESPN ahead of his move from Palmeiras to Real Madrid in the summer of 2024.
One of the things that stands out about Endrick’s game is his appreciation of space. He has a stocky build, has great acceleration and a fair left foot, but it’s his ability to locate the area to damage opponents that makes him particularly dangerous. this almost indifferent acceptance of responsibility.
The team that won the Brazilian name took a position at the beginning of November against the leader Botafogo. Palmeiras trailed 3-0 at half-time and went to the dressing room expecting a rocket from their fiery Portuguese coach, Abel Ferreira. They didn’t get it.
Instead, as Endrick recalls, “he said we couldn’t play any worse. ” A teammate said Ferreira told them they handled the second half as if it were 0-0. The message worked. The team calmly returned to the area and won 4-3. Endrick scored two goals and the cameras showed that he had trouble getting the ball, an astonishing display of confidence that temporarily promoted him to the Brazil team for last month’s World Cup qualifiers.
This was another dream come true, but things did not work out as he had hoped. He came off the bench in defeats to Colombia and Argentina, making little impression as Brazil lost two qualifiers in a row and lost a qualifier at home — both for the first time.
“It’s hard,” he said, shrugging. They were difficult games, in which sides that were well above average faced each other. “But of course, you may not feel the same weight of tension as past generations. After all, the last time Brazil won the World Cup was 4 years before I was born. And his first memory of the tournament is sobering.
“I was too young for 2010,” he says, “so the first one is 2014,” a delight painful enough to send shivers down the spine of any Brazilian.
Pelé’s earliest memory of the World Cup saw his father cry as he listened on the radio to Brazil’s home defeat in 1950. Perhaps Endrick’s memory of the famous 7-1 loss to Germany will serve as fuel for long-term triumphs.
“Of course,” he says, “it’s anything else I dream of, winning the World Cup and giving other people a great explanation for why to be happy. “
Don’t bet against it. One by one, the dreams are scratched, step by step with a song in the heart.