Real Madrid-bound Endrick on World Cup hopes, admiring Ronaldo،
European defenders had better be vigilant: an attacker is on the way to sing their pain.
Brazilian sensation Endrick is joining Real Madrid at the age of 18 in the middle of next year. And despite his youth, he is a player who has already made the transition from promise to reality. Palmeiras produced a late explosion to win the Brazilian championship on the final day of the season, snatching the title with eight wins and two draws in their last 11 matches.
Their top scorer in the race was Endrick – and time and again he scored the decisive goals. And, as rival defense attorneys testified, he did so while humming a song.
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“I do it to stay calm during the match,” Endrick says with a smile. “If my mind is relaxed, I make better decisions.”
It will not be drawn randomly from the directory. “There are a few songs that are rolling around in my head, in different styles of music,” he said during a trip to New Balance headquarters in Boston as part of his new shoe deal.
Endrick was dancing in the middle of Palmeiras' match against Fluminense 😂 pic.twitter.com/gR1gHOjTKB
–ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 3, 2023
And it wouldn't be entirely surprising if some of them were written long before he was born. There is a retro side to him. When he recently showed up to join the Brazilian national team, his hair and clothes made him look like someone who had just stepped out of a black-and-white photo from the late 1950s. This was in stark contrast to the platinum hair favored by many of his generation.
“My mother is an influence,” he says. “But it's also my thing. I watch movies and get advice on how to present myself, especially because I'm going to Europe, where the look is less scandalous, more formal.”
But behind this retro look hides a resolutely modern citizen of the football planet, who from the start aimed to play on the other side of the Atlantic.
“I grew up with two dreams. I watched the Brazilian League and the Copa Libertadores, so I wanted to make my mark in Brazil first. But joining a big European club was something I had always dreamed of. I watching Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid winning the Champions League, it was something natural to feel a connection with the club.
“It's a club that I've loved since I was a kid, and so it's really good to know that I'm going there. But I'm not there yet. Obviously, it's good to think about doing team with Rodrygo, Vinícius Júnior, Jude Bellingham. But at the moment I'm watching as a supporter. I'm not thinking so much about how I can fit into the team. Over the next few months I'll be a Palmeiras player and that's where my focus will be,” Endrick said.
He has considerable history with the club. Originally from Brasilia, Endrick moved to Sao Paulo to join Palmeiras at the age of 10. His father sent videos of his talented son to interested clubs. Palmeiras returned with an offer of opportunity for the son and a job as a goalkeeper for the father, and thus Endrick rose through the ranks of the traditional club of the Italian community of Sao Paulo. One of the club's nicknames is “the academy”, and that's how Endrick used it. Palmeiras was a home for him, but also a kind of academic institution preparing him for the challenges to come.
“I take my job very seriously,” he says. “That's why, since I have been in contact with the senior team, I have made it a duty to observe, listen and speak with experienced players, like Gustavo Gómez, Weverton and Marcos Rocha (veteran central defender , goalkeeper and right back respectively) to find out more about everything that goes on and what being a professional footballer entails.”
One of the things he's already learned is that fame takes its toll. “I try to answer every question reporters ask me. There are some questions that may make you uncomfortable. The only place I have privacy now is at home with my family,” he said.
“It's where I can have fun with my brother, my parents, my girlfriend and my sister are there. So home is the place where I am the calmest, where I have the most fun, surrounded by my family. But if that's the case, “My favorite place, number two on the list, is on the grounds: it's my amusement park, my Disneyland,” Endrick adds.
The walks are all the more pleasant as he is free to move around. “In the Palmeiras youth teams I played as an attacking midfielder, on the left wing, on the right wing, and now as a center forward I like having the freedom to move around.”
1:17
Endrick, on his way to Real Madrid, wants a 2024 full of trophies
Teenage star Endrick speaks to ESPN ahead of his move from Palmeiras to Real Madrid in the summer of 2024.
One aspect that stands out in Endrick's game is his appreciation of space. A stocky build, he has tremendous acceleration and an excellent left foot, but it's his ability to find the space to hurt the opposition that makes him particularly dangerous. And there is this almost nonchalant acceptance of responsibility.
The match that actually won the Brazilian title took place in early November against runaway leaders Botafogo. Palmeiras trailed 3-0 at halftime and returned to the locker room expecting a rocket from their fiery Portuguese coach Abel Ferreira. They didn't understand it.
Instead, as Endrick recalls, “he said we couldn't play any worse.” A teammate said Ferreira told them they should approach the second half like it was 0-0. The message worked. The team calmly returned to the field and won 4-3. Endrick scored twice and cameras showed him demanding the ball, a stunning display of confidence that saw him quickly promoted to Brazil's squad for the World Cup qualifiers last month.
It was another dream come true, but things didn't turn out the way he had hoped. He came off the bench in defeats to Colombia and Argentina, leaving little impression as Brazil lost two qualifying matches in a row and lost a qualifying match at home – on both occasions to the first time.
“It was hard,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “These were tough matches against well-above average opponents.” But then again, perhaps he does not feel the same weight of pressure as previous generations. After all, the last time Brazil won the World Cup was four years before he was born. And his first memory of the tournament is sobering.
“I was too young for 2010,” he says, “so the earliest I remember is 2014,” an experience harrowing enough to make any Brazilian shudder.
Pele's first World Cup memory was seeing his father cry while listening to Brazil's home defeat in 1950 on the radio. Perhaps Endrick's memory of the infamous 7-1 loss against Germany will serve as fuel for future triumphs.
“Of course,” he said, “that’s something else I dream of, winning the World Cup and giving people a big reason to be happy.”
Don't bet against it. One by one, dreams are scratched, one step at a time with a song in the heart.
