Leonardo Jardim admits 'special' focus on Flamengo's academy | OneFootball

Flamengo coach highlighted his confidence in João Victor, a center back from the club’s youth academy

Flamengo beat Coritiba 3-0 in the last match before the break in the schedule for the World Cup, on Saturday (30). In the 18th round of the Brazilian Championship, the Rubro-Negro had to overcome a long list of absences due to call-ups. In the meantime, Leonardo Jardim admitted that he pays special attention to the youth academy.

In short, during a press conference, Leonardo Jardim said that paying attention to youth players is a ‘trademark’ of his career. That made it easy for the Flamengo coach to choose replacements for the called-up players. Among the under-20 athletes, João Victor was brought on in the first half after Léo Ortiz picked up an injury.

— As a coach, I have always had this in my career, which is paying attention to young academy players. Here, with matches every three days, we haven’t been able to give them attention in terms of playing time, but we have in terms of analyzing what they have done with the under-20s. João Victor has been playing very well for the under-20s and trained with the senior squad last year. Today there were two options: bring on Saul and move a defensive midfielder to the back line, or trust and play a young player -, he said, before adding:

— I don’t like changing players’ positions; he is here and I have to trust him. I told him: “João, you know the rules, you have to play your football.” I think he had a good game and it is no coincidence that he is one of the best young center backs in Brazilian football. I hope this is a first step toward him playing more in the future. That’s my approach -, he concluded.

What happened?

It is worth noting that Léo Ortiz asked to be substituted just 15 minutes into the first half of the match against Coritiba. As a result, Leonardo Jardim called on João Victor to enter the match and form the center-back pairing with Vitão. Both played well and, in the match, Fla did not concede any goals.

What now?

Now, the Flamengo squad is on vacation because of the break for the World Cup. The team will report back on June 19 at Ninho do Urubu before traveling to Portugal for preseason training. Officially, Fla will only return to the field on July 22, when they face Chapecoense in the 19th round of the Brasileirão.

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