South American heart, European mentality: Flamengo look to upset PSG in Doha

Ahead of Intercontinental Cup final, Jose Boto, the Rio club's sport director explains their rise to champions of Brazil and South America

Flamengo players celebrate winning the Copa Libertadores in Rio de Janeiro. EPA

The dominant club sides of Europe and South America will collide in Doha on Wednesday night when Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain take on Copa Libertadores holders Flamengo in the Fifa Intercontinental Cup final.

Flamengo, also reigning champions of Brazil, reached the final thanks to wins over Mexican side Cruz Azul and African champions Pyramids.

Ahead of the game, The National spoke to Jose Boto, the Portuguese sport director who has helped shape the Flamengo squad.

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Boto previously worked at Shakhtar Donetsk and Benfica where he was head scout for 12 years and responsible for developing players including Bernardo Silva, Ederson, Nelson Semedo, Goncalo Guedes, Renato Sanches, and also signed the likes of Angel Di Maria, David Luiz, Nemanja Matic, Nicolas Gaitan, Axel Witzel and Ramires.

At Flamengo, Boto is involved in the day-to-day management of the team alongside coach Filipe Luis.

Q: Are you surprised about Flamengo's success this season? Why is this happening?

A: The president (Luiz Eduardo Baptista), myself, the coach, the players. We’ve brought a new mentality to Flamengo, a more European mentality, to become more successful. The main competition we won is the Libertadores, which is like the Champions League in South America. That and the Brazilian league were our main goals and now we are in this competition.

Of course, we will try to win against PSG but for us the most important thing is to see the level we are at, like PSG, like we did in the Club World Cup in July when we played against Chelsea and against Bayern Munich. That was very, very important to us to see the level we’re at against the best teams in the world.

You're the Brazilian champions ahead of Palmeiras, who you also met in the Libertadores final, so what is your level?

In South America, we’re at the highest level. That's why we bring players like Danilo, Jorginho, Juninho, Samuel Lino … players who are used to competing in the Premier League or La Liga. That brings us this possibility to be dominant in Brazil and South America.

Then we beat Chelsea 3-1 in the World Cup of clubs. We were losing 1-0 but won 3-1. And they won the whole competition. We lost 2-4 against Bayern Munich but played very well. We are in a good way. We are a South American team with the intensity and mentality of a top European team.

Why is this happening now? Why have Flamengo won the Libertadores three times since 2019?

It helps that Flamengo have 45, 50 million fans (in a country of 200 million). That helps the club be huge. Even before 2019 the club had a group of people, including the president, who manages the club like a big company. That gives the club financial wealth which I think no one [else] has in South America.

With the coaches, Filipe Luis (who initially arrived as a player) was the only coach who stayed more than one year in the club. They always changed coaches and this was the mentality, but the new president wants a more stable club in terms of the sports side because the economic side is very stable. For me, a European guy, when I see Flamengo’s support, it’s like a religion, something I never saw in Europe.

Your average home crowds are 62,000, easily the biggest in Brazil, but River Plate is bigger in South America. Why are Brazilian clubs so dominant in South American competition?

The Brazilian league is much stronger economically than the Argentinian league. And our merchandising, because of our huge support, helps us be very powerful in Brazil.

What's your role like now in Brazil?

As the technical director I'm responsible for all sport policy in football. That means choosing the coach, the players and managing the football in the club. Because the club is also very eclectic, we have a lot of other sports, but of course I'm like the general director in terms of football.

I'm used to scouting Brazil for my former clubs. For me, Brazilian football is not something new. But our scouting is now all over the world and one of the things we want to do is compete also with some European clubs, not only go in the secondary market, but bringing players from Europe who are not just the ones finishing their careers, but still in their prime. We want to compete with the European clubs for players.

Tell us about your coach and the current team.

The coach Filipe Luis is new, it’s the first year he’s coached a professional first team. And the second year as a coach because he was with the academy with the under-20s and under-17s. He is very intelligent and he was preparing to be a coach in the last four or five years of his career as a player, someone who invested everything to become a coach.

He's a very young coach with a European mentality because his career was in Spain and England. For me he's the best Brazilian coach and I think he can be the next Brazilian coach to have more success in the football world.

The team? It was already a strong squad, we just wanted to improve the mentality by bringing players in like Jorginho. Others were already here. Players who have a history of winning in Europe and who bring that mentality.

What does the game against PSG mean to you and to Flamengo?

This competition is huge in South America, but not in Europe. In Brazil, the fans and the media take this like a World Cup competition to see who is the world champion of clubs. It’s very important in Brazil. For me, it’s an opportunity to compare us to these kinds of teams, to see what we need to improve to be at this level.

Describe Flamengo to someone not familiar with the club.

If I must use one word, I will say “religion” and I can give some examples to you to try to understand. This year we played a cup game in Sao Luis do Maranhao, which is a city in the north of Brazil. We played against a small team from the second division.

We arrived the night before the game, but it was 1am because of a delay on the plane. Everybody was in the street to meet us between the hotel and the town, like 10,000 people. The police had to open a corridor for us to pass to the hotel.

And when we won the Libertadores, there were a million people on the streets of Rio to see our bus. A million. I’ve worked in football around the world and never seen anything like this. This is of course a club from Rio, but it's a national club.

When we play, no matter the place, it's always a lot of fans of Flamengo. Even if we played Palmeiras, our biggest rival now, in their city of Sao Paulo, there would be more fans of Flamengo if they were both allowed to buy tickets. It's crazy.

The club has a very strong support from the poorer people. Before I arrived, I don't have this idea and feeling of what is Flamengo.

Where do you go from here?

Now it's difficult. When you win everything, the expectations are very, very high. And we know in football it's not so easy to repeat things. But for me, my big aim is to establish the foundations of what we believe can be a more professional Flamengo, another way to look at the football or the management of the club in South America.