Vinicius Junior was named in Brazil’s squad for FIFA U-17 World Cup. (Source: Reuters)
Brazil have announced their squad for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in India. The mega event will be held from October in India, the first FIFA event that the national will host. Brazil announced their squad and also named Vinicius Junior in it. The teen sensation will be in action in India and the crowd is sure to see a future star.
Why is there so much hype about Vinicius? Well, the 17-year-old boy has been bought by Real Madrid for a repoted deal worth $50million. He is the second most expensive Brazilian football as Neymar moved to Barcelona from Brazil for a deal double of what Vinicius got.
Vinicius Junior was born and raised in São Gonçalo, located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The town is close to the polluted Guanabara Bay. Since the age of 10, he has been at the Flamengo Academy and been playing with Flamengo. But this made his family to relocate. His father went to Sao Paulo and his mother went with her son to Gavea from where Vinicius used to travel by bus to his ground and back.
He has played football at the same club through out his life but when he was 13, coach of the Brazil U-15 team Cacapa spotted him and drafted him into the team. Since then, Vinicus Junior has grown. He made it to the U-17 Brazil team and helped them win the U-17 South American Championships in Colombia which gave his team a qualification to U-17 World Cup. He scored seven goals in that tournament and was named the best player of the tournament.
One move that has become his trademark is chapeus. Vinicus humiliates his defenders with this move as it involves flicking the ball over the defenders head. He put on a show in the South American Championships when performed this move more than three times.
Vinicus Junior was also top scorer in two other tournaments, namely 2016 U-17 BRICS Cup in which he scored four goals and 2016 U-17 Nike Friendlies where he scored 3 goals.
He cannot move to Real Madrid this year as the minimum for international transfer is 18 years and after his 18th birthday on July 20, 2018, will later be taken to Real Madrid.
