Brazil is considered by most to be the favorite (if not co-favorite with Spain) to take home the gold medal at this summer's Olympics in London and for good reason — the potential roster is stacked with talent.
Headlined by Under-23 standouts Neymar, Paulo Henrique Ganso, Lucas, Philippe Coutinho, Leandro Damiao and Alexandre Pato, a 52-man preliminary roster was assembled by manager Mano Menezes, one that may prove difficult to trim down.
Even though overage options Kaka and Robinho were left off the provisional roster, ones that made the first cut include Ronaldinho, Dani Alves, Marcelo, Thiago Silva, Hulk, David Luiz and Julio Cesar. Only three of them will be able to be selected for the final roster per competition rules.
Menezes will trim the roster down to 35 players on June 8 — a little more than a week after his senior side faces the U.S. men's national team — and he will turn in his final 18-man roster on July 6.
Here is the 52-man preliminary roster:
BRAZIL'S PRELIMINARY OLYMPIC ROSTER
- Adriano (Barcelona)
- Alex Sandro (Porto)
- Alexandre Pato (Milan)
- Allan (Vasco)
- André (Atlético Mineiro)
- Bernard (Atlético Mineiro)
- Bruno Uvini ( Tottenham)
- Casemiro (São Paulo)
- Daniel Alves (Barcelona)
- Danilo (Porto)
- David Luiz (Chelsea)
- Dedé (Vasco)
- Diego Alves (Valencia)
- Douglas Costa (Shaktar Donetsk)
- Dudu (DÃnamo de Kiev)
- Elias (Sporting)
- Elkeson (Botafogo)
- Fagner (Vasco)
- Fernandinho (Shaktar Donetsk)
- Fernando (Grêmio)
- Gabriel (Cruzeiro)
- Gabriel Silva (Novara)
- Galhardo (Flamengo)
- Paulo Henrique Ganso (Santos)
- Giuliano (Dnipro)
- Henrique (Granada)
- Hernanes (Lazio)
- Hulk (Porto)
- Jefferson (Botafogo)
- Jonas (Valencia)
- Juan (Internazionale)
- Julio Cesar (Internazionale)
- Leandro Damião (Internacional)
- Lucas (São Paulo)
- Lucas Mendes (Coritiba)
- Luisão (Benfica)
- Marcelo (Real Madrid)
- Marquinhos (Corinthians)
- Neto (Fiorentina)
- Neymar (Santos)
- Oscar (Internacional)
- Philippe Coutinho (Espanyol)
- Rafael (Manchester United)
- Rafael Cabral (Santos)
- Renan Ribeiro (Atlético Mineiro)
- Romário (Internacional)
- Rômulo (Vasco)
- Ronaldinho (Flamengo)
- Sandro (Tottenham)
- Thiago Silva (Milan)
- Wellington Nem (Fluminense)
- Willian José (São Paulo)
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What do you think of that collection of talent? Which three Brazilian overage players would you take? Think Brazil will end up taking the gold?
Share your thoughts below.
UUUUUUUh….Altidore vs. Pato? Shea vs. Neymar? Adu vs. Lucas?
Just a slight edge to Brazil
No just some poser ripping off his hairstyle.
The difference is we have GIANT HOLES in our lineup that need to be filled by overage players.
Are Dempsey, Donovan, Bradley, or Howard going to play LB or CB?
This team sucks at LB. Villafana and Valentin, do you want to see that at the Olympics? Add Fabian Johnson or Lichaj and you make the team a lot stronger.
CB: Ike Opara gives this team one legit CB. After that it’s Kitchen (defensive midfielder), Valentin, and others out of position. So we need to bring one of Bocanegra/Goodson/Ream/Cameron even if they’re not the best overage players we have.
That only leaves one spot. It makes no sense to take Howard when we have Hamid and Johnson. It makes no sense to take Bradley when we have Danny Williams, Morales, Okugo, and Kitchen. That leaves Dempsey and Donovan.
Is that agudelo?
where’s PEPE?
“Michael Parkust and Geof Cameron”… Bocanegra and whitbread. No reason to call up depth players for the overage spots.
I believe 34 will be cut?
You can’t compare us to Brazil. They’ve got stars on stars on stars. They can afford to do things few other nations can.
Not to mention the fact pointed out in the article, that with their automatic WC bid they won’t be facing still WCQ competition like we will.
Funny. Good joke.
DUDU and KAKA
hilarious
Of course Brazil has the 2 teams worth of U-23 talent that can beat any senior side in the world… that doesn’t mean they are gonna do it.
very impressive list, unfortunately only 18 of them can play 🙂 with that in mind, anything can happen in a one game match.
Brazil’s U23 team might handily beat our senior national team. So sad but so true.
Check out this list. The bolded players are over 23:
http://globoesporte.globo.com/futebol/selecao-brasileira/noticia/2012/03/mano-menezes-convoca-pre-lista-para-olimpiadas-com-52-nomes.html
The US should have no fear of those teams such as Spain and Brazil ( if qualify). If we can get together players such as: Altidore, Gyau, Boyd, Chandler, William, Diskerud, Adu, Shea, Andrew Wooten, Ike Opara. The us should be fine. I would suggest Porter to bring a tough guy like Jermaine Jones to boost the midfield and definetely I’d like to see Michael Parkust and Geof Cameron to help Ike Opera in the back line. That boy Valentin looks really shaky and Kitchen not strong enough.
Brazil’s Under-23s are still at better teams than our senior Nats.
I’ll assume your being sarcastic about the US isn’t that far behind though comment.
Also, Ronaldinho’s form since he has returned to Brazil has been good. The Olympics is the only major competition Brazil had not won, so I don’t see them doing any ceremonial roster additions. Plus Brazil was always going to take the Olympics seriously, as host of the 2014 WCQ they lack the intensity of qualifying matches.
Your memory is correct. Adu and Altodore stole the show in the game between the two in Canada.
Are you kidding me? And in earlier posts some people were saying not to take our best overage players. They could be bringing Alves, Cesar, and Hulk? And we shouldn’t bring Dempsey, Bradley, and Howard?
Shows that nations do take this seriously. This team will be loooooaded.
not fair….
Id choose Hulk, David luiz, and Thiago Silva as the overage players. Neymar, Pato, Hulk, up top in a 4-3-3 with Coutinho, and Ganso as the attacking mids behind them, and Sandro as the defensive mid, with David Luiz and Thiago silva as centerbacks, Rafeal as the right back and Alex sandro as the left back, and Rafael Cabral in goal.
I didn’t realize Brazilian footballers were allowed to have two names.
It’s Brazil, the Football Factory of the Western Hemisphere. What else did you expect?
(FYI that was sarcasm, releasing such a list seems bizarre and close to pointless)
He and Jozy are the same age right? Maybe one year older? I thought He/Jozy and Adu all played in the same U-20 in 07.
Damn, all those guys are U-23s? I thought the US Olympic team was deep, but this is ridiculous.
There’s basically nobody good on this roster
Would be more interesting if it was broken down by who is age eligible and who would have to be a wild card.
Our list would look better if we also included the entire national team pool.
Pato is still U-23, huh? It seems like he’s been around forever.
Looks like a very strong roster. They should be the favorites to win Gold. The US isn’t that far behind though – I’d be ecstatic if we could sneak into a medal spot with a big upset against the likes of Spain, Brazil, or Team GB.
It looks like this group needs an experienced goalkeeper badly. I’d expect Cesar to be brought in to fix that. Maybe they’ll bring in Ronaldinho as a last hurrah with the national team so he can pass the torch to someone else.