Felipe Vizeu, Valdivia, Gustavo Henrique and Jean all face a nervous wait, aware their Olympic dreams cannot only begin with the end of a colleague's
On Monday Brazil’s Olympic coach Rogerio Micale confirmed the squad numbers for his 18-man squad for the Rio games.
The announcement also revealed the four players on are currently standby ahead of the big kick-off on August 4.
Flamengo striker Felipe Vizeu, Internacional midfielder Valdivia, Santos defender Gustavo Henrique and Bahia goalkeeper Jean now all face a nervous wait, aware their Olympic dreams cannot only begin with the end of a colleague's.
A champion at youth level, 19-year-old Felipe Vizeu was promoted to the senior this year and not disappointed, with some Fla fans insisting he is already performing better than Peru international and current first-choice Paolo Guerrero.
Valdivia, meanwhile, looked set to play a leading role in the games this year after being a regular presence in the Olympic side in the run-up to the games, but a serious knee injury suffered in November left his side-lined until last month.
He returned to action on June 30 but Micale but after such a long period out of the game he was ultimately left out of the original squad.
Gustavo Henrique has long been a stand-out performer for his club and also formed part for he under-23 side in Olympic warm-ups and is a more than adequate replacement should micale lose one of his first-choice central defedners.
20-year-old Jean was unfortunate to miss out on a place in the squad after starring in the under-20 World Cup last year, starting all seven of Brazil’s matches as they finished runners-up in New Zealand.
Jean has graduated to his side’s first-choice no.1 following the departure of Marcelo Lomba to Internacional and his exclusion has pleased locals in Salvador who were concerned about the possibility of losing their promising youngster for a month of Brazilian first division action.
Brazil's Olympic squad reported to the Granja Comary training complex on Monday.
..... - Goal