Savio, Angelo, Endrick among Brazil’s next generation eyed by European top clubs

Atletico Mineiro won the Brazilian league and cup double last year, and they recently added the Super Copa too. But the player who has been attracting most interest from the European press was not even on the substitutes’ bench.

Seventeen-year-old winger Savio — often referred to in the affectionate diminutive as Savinho — appears to be on his way to Manchester City ahead of Arsenal for around €7 million, with a likely loan move to another club in the City Football Group to follow. City can’t sign him quite yet as he can only leave Brazil once he reaches 18, but the teenager is considered one of the top prospects the country has to offer.

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The Savio story is indicative of how the global transfer market has changed when it comes to South American-based players. If a player has reached the age of 23, their options are already restricted. Now European clubs want to sign teenagers. They want to take them across the Atlantic as early as possible, blood them in a more intense, compact style of football, and quickly get them adapted to life in another culture.

One of the main drivers in this process was clearly Real Madrid’s €45m acquisition of Vinicius Junior back in 2016. He had just turned 16 and had yet to play a senior game for Flamengo, yet Madrid paid out a huge sum to land him. It seemed an insane gamble; a club bidding over the odds in reaction to missing out on Neymar when he joined Barcelona from Santos in 2013. Six years later, Madrid’s move for Vinicius looks like a bargain. Now 21, he is well established as a fundamental part of the team, is one of the most exciting young players in Europe, and has 30 goals and 33 assists from his 152 games to date.

Might Savio be on the same path towards global stardom? The answer is so obvious that it might come across as trite, but it is…