The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) today announced Brazil's preliminary squad for the World Cup in South Africa. 23 players have made the provisional squad. The CBF will also release details of a further seven ‘reserves' over the next day or so. Brazil will begin training in Curitiba on the 21st of this month and Dunga has until June 1st to finalize the 23 players he'll be taking to the World Cup.

Brazilian football star Kaka has taken on an anti-prostitution campaign with Hollywood homeboy Ashton Kutcher. We thought it was random when they started tweeting each other. Now it all makes sense.

Well, sorta. If this didn't come directly from his twitter a/c, we'd be sure it came from the Photoshop Fail blog.

Today, Brazil coach Dunga will host a press conference in Barra da Tijuca, Rio, to announce the list of 23 players who've made it to the Brazil squad. The event will have live coverage on brazilian TV and will be followed by hundreds of reporters on site.
Although most of the list is obvious and known to those who know brazilian football, wildcards like Santos's Neymar and Ganso, as well as Corinthians' legendary left-back Roberto Carlos, add drama to the plot.

Birthday celebrations turn a little sour On my tenth birthday I had a football party, accompanied by the inevitable four footballs and three pairs of shinpads as presents. The occasion was soured when two of my friends squared up after a challenge (I was ten, so this wasn't exactly Millwall v West Ham).

Dunga and Jorginho

Dunga has called up 22 players to face the Republic in Arsenal's Emirates Stadium on 2nd March.

AC Milan's Ronaldinho Gaúcho has been left out once again and is now unlikely to be called up for the World Cup. Ronaldinho's last appearance for his country was in April last year against Peru.

Thats a f**king lot of swearwords!

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Wayne Rooney will find his temperament under even greater scrutiny in England's opening World Cup fixture on Saturday.

One of Brazil's most popular teams is throwing the kitchen sink at the world market as Corinthians celebrate their 100th anniversary. Nike is giving them one of the most elegant kits out there and to put the cherry on top, Corinthians presented their elegant third kit.
The purple and black color combination is extremely elegant and add the cross and it does bring back memories of the Inter jersey that was used a few seasons ago as they, too, celebrated their centenary.

Madson, Arouca, André and Pará do the statue of Liberty

A Santos side without Robinho and Neymar annihilated Ituano 9-1 in the estádio Pacaembu on Sunday. With Robinho injured, and Neymar in the USA with a Santos B team for the game against RB New York, it was André's night after he grabbed a hat trick to bring his total to 10 in the competition.

Brazil's reserves

After announcing his first 23 players earlier in the day, Dunga revealed the seven footballers who are on his stand by list. Diego Tardelli (Atlético Mineiro), Paulo Henrique Ganso (Santos), Carlos Eduardo (Hoffenheim), Marcelo (Real Madrid), Alex (Chelsea), Ronaldinho Gaúcho (AC Milan), and Sandro Ranieri (Internacional/Tottenham) are all hoping to make the final cut.

By Chris Wright

Brazil coach Dunga has revealed his 23-man 'selecao' he plans to take to the World Cup this summer.

As thought, there is no room in the squad for AC Milan show-pony Ronaldinho who's form has wavered widly this season for the Rossoneri and Dunga has also extinguished former Brazil stars Adriano, Roberto Carlos and Ronaldo's (very) faint hopes of making the plane to South Africa.

Cherif Zein, Mat Davis, Bryan Byrne

Jetski and I hit the town last night to celebrate Brazilian football culture with Nike!

It was a great time for all as the Los Angeles footballing community was brought together for a truly Brazilian football experience. It all started off on the roof of the Ricardo Montelban theatre with drinks, Brazilian music, dancers and some Capoeira.

Ref goes down quicker than a Rooney escort An injury to a referee is on a list with ball boys falling over and Nani getting booked for diving for things that we like to see. What makes the injury to Cleber Abade more funny is that he squeals like a little piglet as he is [...]

1 Year On... 10 Best Youngsters at Under-20 World Cup 2009 [Progress Update pt.1] is a post from: Just Football

A year ago we kept a very close eye on the FIFA Under-20 World Cup 2009 here at Just Football, and at the end of the tournament in Egypt we presented our 10 best players of the tournament a look at some future stars of football, potentially.

Have you heard of the Samba Gold award? It's a (colourful, see picture) trophy given out by sambafoot.com, a French website devoted to Brazilian football. They put together a shortlist of the 30 best Brazilians currently playing their football in Europe, and then voted on it. Luis Fabiano of Sevilla (aka o'fabuloso) is the Samba Gold [.

Brazilian football expert Roberticus runs the rule on Arsenal's potential new recruit, Juventude's Zezinho.
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When approached by The Arsenal Column to give a profile of new Arsenal youth recruit, Wellington and the potential transfer Zezinho, I was aware that my insight would be hindered by that common gripe of domestic Brazilian supporters; namely that the players, like 17-year old Wellington, simply leave the country before fans have had a chance to enjoy their performances for the club.

Dentinho

News coming from Turkey suggests that Corinthians man, Dentinho, could be on his way to Istanbul.

Rumour has it that Dentinho's representative and a Corinthians director are in Turkey to negotiate a possible move to Fenerbahçe.

Dentinho, whose real name is Bruno Ferreira Bonfim, turns 21 in two days.

André on target for Santos

Second-half goals from André and Giovanni earned Santos all the points against a plucky Rio Claro on Sunday.

Santos were clearly suffering from a carnaval hangover throughout most of the match and went behind to relegation-threatened Rio Claro late in the first period when Jefferson hit home from close range.

All smiles for Brazil

Brazil take on the Republic of Ireland this afternoon in their last fixture before the World Cup in South Africa. Coach Dunga has said that the time for experimenting is over and that he has already decided the majority of 23 players he'll be calling up later this year.

Robinho on target

Goals in each half gave Brazil a 2-0 win over the Republic of Ireland in the Emirates stadium. A Keith Andrews own-goal just before the end of the first period put the Brazilians ahead. But there was nothing fluky about the second. A very well-worked move involving Kaká, Grafite and Robinho ended in the latter sweeping the ball home.

With the 2010 FIFA World Cup just a few weeks away, its time to breakdown the 32 teams that will be participating in The Great Tournament. Next up is the CONMEBOL nation of Uruguay.
Official Name: Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol
Nickname: La Celeste
FIFA Confederation: CONMEBOL (South America)
FIFA Code: URU
How They Qualified: Def.

Cruzeiro Esporte Clube is a Brazilian football club from the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais founded on January 2, 1921. Cruzeiro currently campaigns in the top-tier of Brazilian soccer the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. The club finished in 4th place last season's league. As such, Cruzeiro qualified for the 2010 Copa Libertadores.

I've been asked by several of the blog's readers to comment on Dunga's list for South Africa. Well, here goes.
First, let's discuss those who didn't make it. Adriano, more concerned with partying in Brazil's favelas and booze, deserved to be sidelined and will now be remembered as the only idiot who ruled himself out of the world's largest football party.

Dunga

The Brazilian Football Confederation has just announced that Brazil will take on Zimbabwe and Tanzania before the World Cup kicks off in South Africa. The South Americans will play Zimbabwe in Harare on June 2nd and then face Tanzania in Dar El Salaam five days later.

Felipão - the coach should be returning to Palmeiras this week

With the World Cup out of the way, the Campeonato Brasileiro is set to restart this Wednesday evening.

Many clubs took the opportunity to rejig their personnel. Only seven rounds were played before the break, but eight teams (Atlético Paranaense, Atlético Goianiense, Avaí, Ceará, Cruzeiro, Internacional, Palmeiras and Vasco) have already swapped coach.

Reigning English champions Chelsea are lining up a bid to land Brazil's hottest talent Neymar. The 18 year old has been the talk of the samba nation ever since he burst into the limelight with Brazil's youth team in last year's u-17 World Cup finals staged in Nigeria.

Now i won't pretend and say that i have watched any of Neymar's games because i haven't , but just for the record, this is definitely not the first time i am hearing of Neymar.

In 1953 Garrincha was a 19 year-old man who signed for Rio's top club of Botafogo FR. In his first training session Garrincha put the ball between the legs of experience national team defender Nilton Santos.

Mané Garrincha soon became the most loved and the most hated player in Brazil.

Tonight at 8:00 PM (eastern USA time) on ESPN2 the USA will play in their first international action since losing to Ghana in extra time 2-1 this recent World Cup. And the match will have plenty of fresh faces from the recent World Cup and it will also be the beginning of a new coaching era for the most successful football nation in the world.

No word yet as we all anxiously await news from the meeting that may very well change the landscape of Brazilian football forever. Your move, Neymar.

What time is it again?

There has been a lot of talk lately about why Brazil's golden kid, Neymar, denied Chelsea's millionaire offer to go play football in the land of the Queen. Patriotism? Money? Marketing? Even Brazil's president, Lula, commented on it.

The truth is, the move was smart and well thought.

Neymar saying no to Chelsea's millions and staying with Santos is being seen as a huge victory for Brazilian football.
This might be going just a little too far but more than anything else, it is a victory for common sense.
The 18-year-old is a magnificent prospect. He is sleek and skilful, able to beat the defender on either side, capable of combining well, and full of tricks he can put to productive use in and around the penalty area.

Adriano was once seen as the future of Brazilian football after joining Inter Milan and was dubbed 'the new Ronaldo', however a spiral of drink, depression and the death of his father saw him fall out of love with the game; a decline that nearly saw him end it all.

One round left and Fluminense kept the leadership under its arms to play the title decider against relegated Guarani at home on Sunday. However, discussion raging in Brazil nowadays is not over the qualities of the league. The intense debate in the country is over an old obsession: the format of the tournament.

Originally from Goal.com I just like the photos, which I've only just found...

Former Brazil, Barcelona and Milan star Rivaldo will make a return to Brazilian football in the 2011 Paulista for tiny club Mogi Mirim, of whom the player is also president.

The 38 year-old has not played competitive football since leaving Uzbekistani outfit Bunyodkor in August, and it has been seven years since he has played for a Brazilian club.

Its a new year and with comes some exciting news. Former Brazilian international Ronaldo has been voted as the player of the decade by Goal.com readers. Ronaldo beat his former Real Madrid teammate and closest challenger Zinedin Zidane to emerge victorious.

This is the second Brazilian to be voted player of the decade the first being the ever-smiling Ronaldinho who was voted by British football Magazine World Soccer readers.

Thumbs up from Roberto Carlos just one of the big stars in this year's Paulista

Is it that time already? It seems like yesterday that some of us were cheering Flamengo as they lifted the Campeonato Brasileiro. Now, a little under six weeks later, professional football has returned to Brazil with the start of the 27 state championships.

Three times-in-a-row Brazilian champions São Paulo are our 19th team of the decade.
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Amazingly, the 2009 Brazilian championship season had four teams in with a realistic chance of winning the title on the last day and if São Paulo had made won, they would have made it four in a row.

Gorgeous Jorge

In the first big derby in the Campeonato Paulista, a goal from Jorge Henrique was enough to give Corinthians their first win against Palmeiras since 2006 and send the Musketeers to the top of the league.

Henrique's goals came with just six minutes on the on clock after the diminutive forward out jumped the Palmeiras defence.

We've just produced two fantastic promotional videos for FootBrazil and our live Brazilian football games. They're only a couple of minutes in length but are packed with some fabulous images of players, stadiums and fans that make the game in Brazil so spectacular.

Zigger Zagger Zezinho

Santos have announced the signing of Zezinho from Juventude. The 17-year-old midfielder, who is valued at around €15 million (£13.5 million), was linked with a move to Arsenal last year.

The teenager has appeared for Brazil's Under 17s and Santos are claiming that they've signed him on a two-loan deal – though the player's economic rights remain in the hands of Juventude and Zezinho's agent.

One of Brazil's most popular teams is throwing the kitchen sink at the world market as Corinthians celebrate their 100th anniversary. Nike is giving them one of the most elegant kits out there and to put the cherry on top, Corinthians presented their elegant third kit.
The purple and black color combination is extremely elegant and add the cross and it does bring back memories of the Inter jersey that was used a few seasons ago as they, too, celebrated their centenary.