Words Marvio dos Anjos
On a dry, hot afternoon in the city of Sao Paulo, 16-year-old Endrick Felipe Moreira de Sousa is joking around with two team-mates at Palmeiras’ training ground. He’s trying to relax between interviews he’s been giving to national and international media for the past three hours. There’s considerable media interest in the latest Brazilian to be crowned ‘the next Pele’, and FourFourTwo is next in the queue to kiss the ring.
“I find it easy to give interviews,” he tells FFT with a shy smile. “I think it’s cool. That’s what I’ve always wanted, right?”
Brazil’s conveyor belt of teenage maestros is one of world football’s most dependable production lines, and Endrick is one of its most precocious products yet. His move to Real Madrid, set to be confirmed in July 2024 when he turns 18 for a reported £52 million, will do nothing to suppress the hype. The December reveal that Endrick was Bernabeu bound is made all the more remarkable by the fact it comes even earlier than Vinicius Jr’s announced exit from Flamengo to the Spanish capital, also delayed until he came of age, six weeks before his 17th birthday in May 2017 for £38m.
Comparing Endrick to Vinicius, rather than Pele, is perhaps more realistic, but still a fairly weighty crown given what the 22-year-old has already achieved in four and a half La Liga seasons. Both are wide forwards, a pair of prestigious Brazilian teenage stars whose first taste of European football is via 14-time European champions.
Similarities in their early trajectories can be traced to Frederico Pena, agent to both. “The main difference between them,” explains Pena, “is that Vini has always been the best in his class, year after year, whereas Endrick has always been ahead of his class, playing with much older players, due to his physical maturity. Everybody was shocked by Vini’s talent after he played in the South American Under-17 Championships with Brazil.”
Brazil triumphed in that 2017 competition, with Vinicius scooping top scorer and player of the tournament awards. Two months later he’d signed a contract with Real Madrid. At the time, he was the second most expensive Brazilian in football history (behind Neymar), had commanded the largest fee received by a Brazilian club and fetched more than any player under the age of 19 ever.
However, Endrick’s numbers trump all that. In December he was named in Brazil’s squad for the South American U20 Championships despite being only 16. Ronaldo (Brazilian, not Portuguese) jumped in and took it a step further, suggesting Endrick should h
