00:00Another reality, even at Cruzeiro, is Igor Thiago, who arrived at a slightly more turbulent time.
00:05That he had the rise to the main team, that you could talk a little about his story,
00:09He's also a guy who comes from very far away to get to Belo Horizonte, a reality, a life story.
00:13hard,
00:14Just like we see many in football. What was he like? How did he initially arrive at Cruzeiro?
00:20Igor Thiago is already a bit different from Maurício and Ederson, because those two were already talented players.
00:26of Brazilian football,
00:27Even though they were located in the interior of São Paulo, Desportivo Brasil always did a good job of...
00:32training.
00:33Igor Thiago's story is quite interesting; we were already competing in the Brazilian Under-20 Cup.
00:39in 2019,
00:40I was there around March, and the director of the base, Amarilo Ribeiro, was at training like this,
00:46He showed me a short video on WhatsApp, Ricardo, take a look at this player, he showed me the WhatsApp,
00:50a video of about 40 seconds of him playing for Verê, scoring three goals, beautiful goals,
00:58And he said, Ricardo, what did you think? And we already had a strong squad at Cruzeiro, we already had the
01:02Vinicius Popó,
01:04There are other very talented players; I spoke with my director, and I saw quality in him.
01:09I think we could bring him here to the parish to be evaluated.
01:13And we made an appointment, he came to do a trial, he was from Verê, a small team from Paraná,
01:18Then, the week he arrived, we scheduled a practice session at Toca da Raposa 1, in the little den.
01:23And we put him on the reserve team. Wow, him on the reserve team, the center-back pairing was Edu and...
01:29Kaká,
01:30He managed to dribble past both of them, make plays, score goals, and that's when he caught everyone's attention.
01:35mine, Célio Lúcio's, our director at the time, Amarildo, and we said, "Hey,
01:40This player is interesting. We observed him a bit more, and he was approved.
01:44We brought him on loan from Verê. And by then he was already competing in the Copa do Brasil.
01:51I even spoke to the guys, "Look, let's register him, put him on the beat right away,"
01:55Because I want to have him available for the Copa do Brasil. And then he started going to the Copa.
02:00from Brazil,
02:00And then in the quarterfinals against Corinthians, first leg,
02:06I believe that was his first goal for Cruzeiro; he came on in the second half.
02:10We're playing against Corinthians, a difficult game,
02:12Then there's a cross, he scores a beautiful header, and he did very well there.
02:17That's when he started developing, and we even made it to the final of the Copa do Brasil.
02:22In the under-20 match against Palmeiras, he also came on and scored a goal, but we also had Vinícius Popó,
02:27who was a gem from Cruzeiro's youth academy, at the time Popó even had an offer from Benfica,
02:31Benfica were interested in buying Popó, but then Igor Thiago was doing so well,
02:36So when the Brazilian under-20 championship arrived in 2019, I changed the game system a bit.
02:41We used to play in a 4-3-3 formation, with one defensive midfielder, one attacking midfielder, and two forwards.
02:45so that Igor Thiago can play alongside Popó,
02:48So we played almost a 4-2-4 formation with Igor Thiago and Popó.
02:52And then it grew, it developed in 2019,
02:55He had a good Brazilian under-20 tournament, scoring goals for the Brazilian under-20 team.
02:59And then, when I left Cruzeiro in 2020, he moved up to the professional team.
03:04That's where he plays in Serie B, that's where he's had some ups and downs.
03:07During this turbulent time for Cruzeiro, we know that the Cruzeiro fans...
03:11And rightfully so, given the greatness of Cruzeiro,
03:15He didn't deserve to be in Serie B, and he had a little bit of the natural difficulty that any young player has.
03:19to fluctuate a little, to play good games, to not do so well,
03:23But in short, without a doubt Cruzeiro was fundamental in Igor Thiago's story.
03:28Because I even saw a story about him, where he talked about his whole story.
03:33that one day he even considered giving up football, while talking to his mother,
03:36He was very sad, he said, "Mom, I'm going to quit playing football."
03:39His mother, no, she's moving on with her life, and Cruzeiro opened its doors for him.
03:43with all the infrastructure that Cruzeiro has, from training center 1, training center 2,
03:48With top-level professionals, Cruzeiro was therefore fundamental.
03:51for this discovery by Igor Thiago, from several professionals,
03:56and having contributed a great deal to the start of his career,
03:59And he is where he is today, representing the Brazilian national team.
04:03And there
04:05And there
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