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Thread about one of my favourite players from that Brazil '82 team. Leandro de Souza Ferreira, a one-club man (Flamengo), mostly right-back or centre-back, a guy who made everything look easy. (1/23)
Leandro grew up in Cabo Frio, a seaside town about three hours' drive from Rio and was that rare instance of the beach-raised laconic footballer trope actually holding true. (2/23)
He wasn't interested in football until he was 9 years old, and today he swears that for the next 3 years after joining in with the neighbouring kids he was hopelessly uncoordinated and timid, always the last one picked in kickarounds. (3/23)
In his early teens he began refining his technique by sheer force of will, tying his preferred leg (right) to a table in the garage and training his left to control rebounds vs a wall. He'd play amateur games prohibiting himself from touching the ball w his right. (4/23)
Arsene Wenger once affirmed that if by 14 years of age an aspiring footballer hasn't mastered their technique, they have no hope of making it professionally; Leandro was a refutation of that maxim. (5/23)
Aged 17, Leandro moved to Rio with a cousin where he enrolled in a prep course for entering university with the hope of one-day becoming a P.E. teacher and later opening his own gym/sports club. (6/23)
One day, heading to the beach, they alighted the bus at the penultimate stop, right outside Flamengo's training ground at Gávea. The cousin dared him to enter and request a trial. Too shy, Leandro left his cousin to go in and ask. He promptly started 2 days of trials. (7/23)
The prospective cadets tried out according to their respective stronger foot. Leandro, by now ambidextrous, volunteered to play both variants of the positions. He was in. For the next 2 years he shot up through youth and reserves and played all outfield positions (8/23)
Under coach Joubert, he debuted with Flamengo's senior side in 1978, establishing himself as right-back just as the Rubro-negro was on the verge of a glorious epoch. The side of Zico, Júnior, Andrade, Adílio won 2 consecutive league titles, Libertadores, Club World Cup. (9/23)
He made his national team debut under Telê Santana in late 1981, and a few months later was an integral part of that much-revered side. Falcão said that in a squad boasting Sócrates and Zico, Leandro was considered the most technically gifted member by the others. (10/23)
Leandro's role with Brazil differed from that of Flamengo; for the latter he had wingers like Tita ahead of him in a 4-3-3. Santana's lopsided Brazil entrusted him to patrol the entire right margin with only intermittent support from Falcão, Sócrates, Zico and Serginho. (11/23)
This was the era just before Jorginho and Branco would pave the way for the Roberto Carlos-Cafú archetype of shuttling full-backs. Leandro even (like Junior then and Marcelo and Dani Alves more recently) was a playmaker who bewildered opponents by moving infield (12/23)
Leandro was considering early retirement when in 1985 Flamengo coach Zagallo encouraged a switch to centre-back to offset a history of knee injuries (he'd had both menisci operated) that the player attributed to his bow-legged physiology. (13/23)
Between 82 and 85, Brazil went through three different coaches. There was a return to 4-3-3 which coincided with the emergence of a sensational right-winger in Grêmio's Renato Portaluppi. The right-flank looked assured with the formidable Leandro-Renato duo. (14/23)
With the return of Telê to the seleção in '85, Leandro requested a switch to central defence or central midfield (something Junior was permitted by both Udinese and Brazil). Team doctor Ney Lasmar warned: "It's going to be the same as '82. The whole flank to yourself". (15/23)
Telê, much like how Roger Lemerre would later insist re Lilian Thuram, was adamant: "You're the best right-back I've ever seen. You playing at 40% of your level, that'll be enough". This Brazil would play with even less width than four years previously. (16/23)
In the build-up to the finals in Mexico, a breach of curfew by some players out for the night during a training camp in Belo Horizonte led Santana to threaten Renato and Leandro with expulsion from the final squad. (17/23)
Telê relented when Edson, Leandro's competitor at right-back, requested he be pardoned. In the event, Edson would only play the opening game of the WC v Spain, later ceding his place to one of the breakout stars of the tournament, Josimar. (18/23)
Two more friendlies were played. But when announcing his final list, Telê excluded Renato but not Leandro. Citing guilt and as a gesture of solidarity with Renato, Leandro refused to travel on the day of the team's departure to Mexico. (19/23)
His non-appearance at the airport stunned the unaware Zico and Junior, who made a dash to his house in a last minute plea to persuade him to board the flight. (20/23)
TV reporters waited outside Leandro's residence as a cousin and a friend emerged to opine that Telê should be sacked and Zagallo instated at the helm. Leandro refused, Zico tearfully conceded defeat, and Brazil flew to Mexico sans a most beguiling player in his prime. (21/23)
To this day, Leandro emphasises that his concern about the physical demands of playing right-back and the longevity of his career was a bigger factor in his renouncement of the national team than any ill-feeling towards Telê Santana regarding Renato's exclusion. (22/23)
Leandro never played for Brazil again despite popular demand that he be included in Sebastião Lazaroni's three-man central defence at the World Cup in 1990. Later that year, he would retire from Flamengo, his home, at 31 years of age. (23/23)
