Foreign legion provide Brazilian clubs with cash injection

By Andrew Downie SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A wave of foreigners heading to Brazil to hone their football skills is providing clubs with extra income but new business has been hit by the national team's shameful exit from the 2014 World Cup, officials told Reuters. Thousands of promising youngsters from Kazakhstan to South Korea have been funded by clubs and governments to spend up to three years in Brazil learning from local coaches and most are happy with the experience. However, the Selecao's shattering 7-1 semi-final defeat by Germany on home soil at last year's World Cup has put off potential customers who have questioned whether the country is the right place to master the game. "We haven't had problems with the existing partners because they know what we can do and can see it pays off," said Tiago Koslovski, who is in charge of international partnerships at Botafogo. "They know that the football we showed in the World Cup finals is not the football we teach here. "But we have seen a change. New partners prefer to send kids to Spain and Germany and if I were them I might do the same. "But we can survive with the clients we have because they trust us and have seen the results." Teams such as Sao Paulo, Brazilian champions Cruzeiro and Botafogo-SP, a minor side in rural Sao Paulo state, are paid to groom the players for professional careers in their homeland. Koslovski, in charge of international partnerships at Botafogo, said his club had honed the skills of some 50 players who have gone on to play internationally for Kazakhstan, South Africa and Cameroon, amongst others. "We have been doing this almost eight years and have the biggest such programme in Latin America," Koslovski said. Cruzeiro, too, have a whole department dedicated to looking after the visitors. "Kazakhstan has a government agreement for Cruzeiro to manage their athletes," Franklin Grageda, the club's supervisor for international football, told Reuters. "We have the infrastructure here." The 26 players train twice a day with coaches, trainers and interpreters from Cruzeiro who work full-time with the young squad. ROUGH DIAMONDS They study at night and are taken on cultural and social visits to museums, parks and sporting events. The Kazaks stay at a 30-room hotel inside Cruzeiro's modern training ground that was built to house such visitors. Teenagers from the United States, Canada, Australia and Angola are among those who have been at the club this year, Grageda added. Cruzeiro do not expect any of the players will ever graduate to play for their first team. Few have the talent to match local Brazilians and the programme is more about making money than making stars. The cash is more than welcome at Brazil's league clubs, the majority of which are badly run and in debt. The top 24 teams owe a collective 4.53 billion reais ($1.2 billion), according to annual figures issued by Itau BBA, one of Brazil's leading investment banks. However, if rough diamonds do emerge they will not be tossed out. Botafogo, the club where Brazil internationals Socrates and Rai began their careers, started with the same policy but were so impressed with 18-year old Chinese defender Sheng Ma that they signed him on a professional deal last month. The club often gives the foreign players Brazilian nicknames to make them feel at home. Chinese kids with names like Oscar, Junior and Silva are now common at Botafogo's training ground in Ribeirao Preto. Although the clubs are reluctant to disclose the financial incentives, Koslovski said Botafogo get about $100 per athlete per day, a healthy sum for a small club. (Editing by Pritha Sarkar)