SAO PAULO – At 17 years old, he is already being compared to Neymar and Pele. But Endrick, the teenager hailed as Brazilian football’s next great hope, says he does not pay attention to the hype.
“I know no one can even touch the feet of Pele. He’s the King of football,” says the forward, who just helped Sao Paulo club Palmeiras to a second straight Brazilian league title and will join Real Madrid in July 2024 when he turns 18.
“I just want to be Endrick. I want to show them who Endrick is,” he said at an event with a new sponsor in Sao Paulo.
Compact, fast and ingenious with the ball, Endrick has already racked up an impressive list of accolades since making his professional debut at 16.
Besides two league trophies, he has inspired Palmeiras to the Brazilian Super Cup and Sao Paulo state championship. In November, he became the youngest player to be called up to the national team since Ronaldo in 1994.
The striker, who signed with Real in 2022 for a reported US$65 million (S$87.4 million) plus bonuses, comes along at a difficult moment in Brazilian football.
Five-time World Cup champions Brazil have not managed to hoist the trophy since 2002. Critics in Brazil say the generation led by Neymar has failed to live up to the glory days of Pele and Ronaldo.
The Selecao are currently a lowly sixth place in 2026 World Cup qualifiers, after suffering the humiliation of three straight defeats, including their first-ever home loss in a qualifier to arch-rivals and reigning champions Argentina in November.
There is growing clamour for interim national coach Fernando Diniz to make Endrick a starter and give him the No. 9 of past Brazil greats such as Ronaldo and Tostao.
“A lot of players want to be No. 9 on the national team. I don’t care about my number. I just want to be there and play,” says Endrick.
Will he live up to the hype when he joins Real in July?
Endrick already knows a thing or two about performing under pressure. After turning heads in his debut season in 2022 – scoring three goals in seven matches to help Palmeiras to the league title in the home stretch – he found himself in the spotlight while playing his first full season in 2023.
He got off to a rocky start, scoring just four goals in his first 19 matches. At one point, he was reduced to tears on the pitch, frustrated over his goal drought.
“It was a kind of unstable start to the season,” he says.
“Then I changed the little key in my head, and realised I was happy. I managed to help my team to the title, and I think I’ll help even more next year.”
The “little key” he needed to change, he says, was to stop reading what people wrote about him on social media and instead surround himself with family and friends.
He also stepped up his training outside practice, and started taking English and Spanish classes.
The effort paid off in the second half of the season, as Palmeiras claimed the title in a heart-stopping end.
Endrick scored six times in the last 10 matches, including a key brace against Botafogo and the goal that sealed the title for Palmeiras in the 1-1 draw with Cruzeiro on Dec 6.
“They say I was the hero, but I don’t think so. The whole team was the hero,” he says.
“I’m just happy to have helped the team I love.” AFP
