Ceará secure derby win with five Cidade Vozão players on the pitch | OneFootball

Gabriel Silva / Ceará SC

In the 2-1 win over Fortaleza last Sunday, the 17th, in Brasileirão B, Ceará finished the match with five players developed at Cidade Vozão. In addition to João Gabriel and Melk, who started the match, Enzo Lodovico, Giulio, Pedro Gilmar, and Sanchez — promoted to the club’s professional team in 2015 — came on and contributed to the victory.

Melk was the standout player of the match, contributing to the first goal and providing the assist for the second. The goal scored by Melk also involved three of the five players. In the play, João Gabriel passed to Enzo Lodovico, who laid it off for Melk to finish into the corner.

Head coach Mozart, in the post-match press conference, praised the academy players’ performance and highlighted the club’s work in developing young athletes.

“We finished the derby with five players developed here at the club. On the first goal, it was practically made by players developed at the club: João, Enzo, and Melk. So, I also want to open this parenthesis to talk about the development work at this club. I’m really taking over a very good foundation setup. Alison, who is with us today, really coached these boys. They have a very strong understanding of what to do on the field. And one thing they are bringing to us, coming up from the academy to the first team, is a sense of belonging,” said Mozart.

In the Clássico-Rei, the head coach of Mais Querido included nine academy players in the squad, accounting for 39% of those called up. In addition to those who played, Gustavo Martins, Kauã Ziegler, Pedro Gilmar, and Pedro Esli, recently promoted to the professional team, were options on the bench.

“The fact that we had nine academy players called up for a Clássico-Rei is the crowning achievement of a plan that began in 2019 and confirms the excellent work being done in the youth academy. It is also important to congratulate everyone who is part of the day-to-day work at Cidade Vozão,” highlighted the Director of Youth Categories, Israel Portela.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.