Roberto Firmino, the Brazilian in Liverpool has not been selected to join the Brazil team for the World Cup. This must have been a blow for the 31-year-old player, and he has been dubbed as a creative player and has worked well with his Premier League manager Jurgen Klopp.
A Facebook post with netizens’ reaction towards the whole ordeal garnered over 1000 likes and 100+ comments. Netizens generally agree with the decision to not take Firmino in as they prefer the likes of Antony and other younger players to participate in this year’s World Cup.
Others are saying that he is not as good as the other players that were selected to join Brazil this year. Jokes were surfacing about his closeness to Liverpool’s manager, Jurgen Klopp and they claim that he’d definitely be selected to go on holiday with the Premier League manager.
Further remarks about his age have been brought up as stated earlier he isn’t as young as Antony or Roger Ibanez.
However, there were multiple fans that supported him and claimed that Brazil is making a huge mistake for not taking him in. They claimed that he helped Brazil qualify for this World Cup and sadly his talents are not appreciated in his own country.
More Firmino supporters claimed that Brazil will suffer this World Cup without him. Even Manchester United fans expressed their support for the player stating that he is a remarkable footballer.
“Liverpool happened to him,” is what they’re all saying on social media. Some are accusing Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp to be the exact reason why Firmino is not selected. It could be that he might prioritise the English club more than his own country’s national team.
However, the fact remains that the Premier League club is the one footing all their players’ bills. The national teams are taking players in through the good graces of the European football clubs.
Gabriel and Firmino
Gabriel Magalhães and Roberto Firmino were not selected for Brazil's World Cup squad ❌🇧🇷
Good decision? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/7PM1XAUAHr
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) November 7, 2022
Furthermore, it was said that Gabriel Magalhaes was also not selected to be in Brazil’s squad. Magalhaes received harsher criticisms when compared to Firmino. “Gabriel doesn’t deserve to be in Brazil’s team anyways,” said a netizen.
Other fans claimed that both Brazilians should have been able to make it into the team, especially when compared to Raphninha and Dani Alves. Unfortunately, these other players are playing in different positions when compared to the first two. Netizens are saying that they can’t be compared to each other.
Criticisms against Richarlison on being selected to join the Portuguese speaking country came about. He is currently being criticised for never having scored for the Premier League while the Liverpool player has.
Richarlison vs Firmino
— eng peace chihanga (@ChihangaEng) November 7, 2022
Arguments about the two Brazilian footballers became a topic under the tweet and netizens were finding statistics and facts to counter attack one another. One posted that the Liverpool player has more scores and games attended on his list, however the latter has more scores for Brazil instead of the Premier League.
Apparently Richarlison has been “killing” it in Brazil’s team. “He always turns up for Brazil,” that is one of the popular opinions on why he was selected instead of Jurgen Klopp’s favourite Brazilian player.
There will be more controversies to come after other countries deciding who is in their team and who is out of their team. We might be surprised later on if another prominent player is not selected on their respective home team. Of course there will be debates among netizens about it.
However, the teams have to decide their lineups quickly as the World Cup is only a couple of days away. Furthermore, the Premier League and Champions League will be wrapping up soon on the first half of their games.
Here are more stories related to the FIFA 2022 World Cup.