Before we begin, it’s worth reiterating that Endrick,
the Brazilian wunderkind who has been lighting up social media feeds for some time now,
is just 15 years old. He is so young that he isn’t allowed to sign a senior contract
with his club, Palmeiras. He’s so young that he is still growing and will be for a few years.
But The Athletic’s Nick Miller wanted to see what the fuss was about,
and had a first watch of Endrick at the Mondial Football Montaigu, a tournament for youth football
that has just taken place in France, in which most of the teams are made up of under-16 players.
So, is this the next Brazilian star of the game?
*title*
Despite every sensible instinct cautioning against over-hyping a 15-year-old,
after watching Endrick you find yourself unable to do anything but admire his prodigious talent.
By the time of the final of Montaigu tournament, with his Brazil taking on Argentina,
he already had four goals in three games to his name, including making a series of
England players look foolish when he slalomed through them to score in the final group match.
It was more than a little reminiscent of Michael
Owen’s goal against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup — certainly in the way
a physically unimposing player scared the life out of more brawny opponents.
The move began when He took advantage of a loose touch by Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri,
and set off down the left…
… before chopping inside to beat Zach Abbott of Nottingham Forest…
…and driving into the space opening before him outside the area, and thrashing the ball home
with his right foot. And it’s worth pointing out at this stage that Endrick is left-footed.
That only added to his reputation ahead of the final. In that game, the Argentinians tried to
double up on him and attempted to knock him off his game, frequently quite literally. Despite
that, in just the second minute Endrick opened the scoring, running through on goal, charging
down a goalkeeper’s clearance and capitalising on a lucky ricochet that flew into the net.
Not a classic goal, no,
but one that nevertheless represented one of the reasons Endrick is so highly rated:
his relentlessness, pressing opponents into mistakes, even that early in the game.
That was also the case for Brazil’s second goal, which made the score 2-1.
Endrick started an attack down the left, then sped into the area only to be taken
out by Facundo Gonzales. It wasn’t a threatening position, and Endrick would probably have been
too close to the byline to attempt a shot himself, but the danger was such that the
defender panicked and gave away a penalty that would be converted into the game’s decisive goal.
In an interview with The Athletic in March 2022, the player described his style of
play to Nick Miller, more evidence of which would be on display in France.
“I’ll always fight,” he said. “I’ll be persistent and try until the last minute I’m in the game.
I never give up, I pressure defenders, I run more than anyone else on the pitch.”
For more evidence of that, we went back to an under-20s match in January between Palmeiras
and Real Ariquemes and a sequence which began with Endrick forcing an opponent into an error…
…then rushing the defender into a pass that he then intercepts.
… before turning and knocking the ball past another defender
in one movement and accelerating away.
Another opponent approached and looked set to win the ball, but Endrick was too quick:
he knocked it to the defender’s left and ran around his right,
collecting the ball near the six-yard box as the goalkeeper advanced…
…before delicately dinking it over him and into the net. It was a quite brilliant finish.
Other Endrick goals have drawn attention - like the overhead kick he scored in the Copinha,
a Brazilian youth tournament, that prompted praise from Gary Lineker.
But this one - against Real Ariquemes – best encapsulates all of Endrick’s qualities:
relentless pressing, pace, close control and fine finishing.
He essentially conjured a goal from thin air, creating and finishing the chance all on his own,
exhibiting early signs of a trait shared by most elite modern forwards.
In the above game against Argentina, Endrick and a couple of team-mates celebrate the first goal
for so long that they hold play up by a good minute, visibly irking their opponents. He’s
clearly still raw. His decision-making is sometimes a little off and he looks
like he’s playing a lot on instinct, and when given time to think he can be less effective.
Two minutes after that first goal against Argentina, Endrick was set clear once again, but
despite leaving his markers for dead, he scuffed a shot straight at the keeper and wasted the chance.
There were also little moments of devilment and aggravation as he got under his opponents’ skin.
A sign of immaturity perhaps, or an overly-combative playing personality.
He was substituted before the end of the final, before it descended into a
brawl between the two sets of players, but he returned at full-time to lift the trophy with
his teammates and collect both the player of the tournament and top-scorer awards.
So, we’ve seen hyped youngsters before and not all of them make it.
Actually few of them do, because talent alone isn’t enough,
but Endrick’s ability stands out in a way that makes sober caution very difficult indeed.