Brazil call up Thiago Silva, seven other Premier League players, confident they’ll play this time

Brazil (and other South and Central American countries) are confident they will avoid the issues seen during the previous international break, when Premier League players were prevented from traveling and joining up with their teams, but then faced five-day bans from FIFA, which were only avoided after some last-minute negotiations between the governing bodies.

(Not to mention the drama seen with the Argentinian players, who traveled anyway, then were escorted off the pitch by Brazilian police, then had to quarantine for ten days before playing again. Football in a pandemic!)

In any case, part of the agreement struck last time between the Premier League and FIFA is the expectation that players will be able to travel this time, and will be given exemptions to quarantine rules — or at least reduced quarantine times of five days (even if less than half the league is reportedly vaccinated). Brazilian national team director Juninho expects explicit confirmation of this provision from the Premier League and FIFA soon.

“This issue started in conversation on the last FIFA date, when we discharged the punishment for athletes to play, in their local games and for the Champions League. It was a demonstration of good faith, precisely aiming at the FIFA date of October so that we don’t have problems and they can be released.

“The conversation was very productive, it’s well under way and I believe that in another day or two we can have this confirmation. But we’re very confident, that’s why we called up the athletes. Our certainty is that this time we will be complete.”

-Juninho; source: Globo Esporte via Sport Witness

Brazil have called up eight players from the Premier League, including Thiago Silva from Chelsea. Silva was not too pleased to not be able to travel last time, posting a picture of handcuffs on his Instagram story, though personally I wouldn’t mind if everyone just got to stay and relax and get healthy for a couple weeks instead.

The Brazil squad in full for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela (Oct 7), Colombia (Oct 10), and Uruguay (Oct 14), is as follows:

GOALKEEPERS: Alisson (Liverpool), Ederson (Manchester City), Weverton (Palmeiras)

DEFENDERS: Thiago Silva (CHELSEA), Marquinhos (PSG), Éder Militão (Real Madrid), Lucas Veríssimo (Benfica), Danilo (Juventus), Emerson Royal (Tottenham), Alex Sandro (Juventus), Guilherme Arena (Atlético-MG)

MIDFIELDERS: Casemiro (Real Madrid), Fabinho (Liverpool), Gerson (Marseille), Everton Ribeiro (Flamengo), Fred (Manchester United), Lucas Paquetá (Lyon), Edenílson (Internacional)

FORWARDS: Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City), Antony (Ajax), Raphinha (Leeds), Gabi (Flamengo), Matheus Cunha (Atlético Madrid), Neymar Jr. (PSG), Vinicius Júnior (Real Madrid)