Arsenal Under 18 fringe players Benik Afobe and Daniel Boateng trained with the Brazilian National Team this afternoon, as Dunga’s superstars prepare for their clash with World Cup holders Italy at the Emirates Stadium tomorrow evening.
The duo warmed up with the South Americans at London Colney, before being separated into games. Afobe faced the likes of Lucio, Luisao, Dani Alves and Gilberto Silva, whilst Boateng had to try and keep out Alex Pato, Julio Baptista, Robinho and former FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldinho.
Benik and Daniel were left over at training after a whole host of Gunners linked up with their countries, and Neil Banfield selected his 16 for the Reserves clash with Tottenham, which has now been called off.
The pair will also be involved tomorrow afternoon as Dunga makes his final preparations for the 7:45 kick off. The experience gained by the talented duo will no doubt be priceless as they aim to force their way into Steve Bould’s Academy side as the season approaches it’s business end.
Article By – J.Sanderson
Is there any news on what they thought about them? by this i mean the brazilians on our players.
Any pics of this Jamie?
wow they are lucky
that’s sick!
its cool the way brazil use our stadium as their home ground in europe
Wow, that’s a pretty amazing experience to have when you’re only 15/16 (it’d be pretty amazing even if they were 10 years older). Surprised that they were the only two there though.
ohh yeah was denilson selected 2 play 4 them if not he must be sum soar grape
amazing.
now that’s what once a lifetime opputunity means. you need to be extremely lucky, be at the right place at the right time to get to train with some of the best footballers in the world when you just a schoolboy.
Denilson will be in that squad soon enough anyway, he is so much better than Anderson.
Great opportunity for the guys and I really hope this can at least boost their confidence. You must be blown out of your mind when you are training next to Ronaldinho etc. It must be amazing enough for them to see RvP and Cesc around, leave alone training with the world superstars.
Great for their education. Don’t England train at London Colney as well before jetting off abroad?
If so Englnd and Brazil training at Arsenal on the same day
here J have you got any news on henri saivet apparently becoming an arsenal player in the summer
Denilson wasnt, the only players based in england to be selected for the game were Anderson (man utd), Robinho (man city) and Elano (man city). Bit suprised Anderson and Elano got in ahead of Denilson considering that Elano has hardly been on form compared to last season and hasnt played all that much, and Anderson has hardly played atall, plus however u feel about Denilson and his performances, statistically hes doing well.
Good that the youngsters got the experiance which as J says is pretty invaluable (i meen how many other kids of that age get to train with the brazilian national team) although i dont envy Boateng much considering brazils offensive prowess, but i recon Afobe probably showed Pato, Robinho and Anderson how its done at the other end :P
Just so long as neither of them descide they wanna play for Brazil… although if my memory serves me correctly boateng is the one who wants to play for Ghana nd not England.
How old was Boateng when he moved to London?
And I agree Johnny, Anderson has been shite this season while Denilson has been one of the few bright lights in North London this season. He hasn’t been good on the wing but neither was Cesc when he was forced to play there.
Ha!! Denilson better than anderson?No way.we are definately a poorer side than last season because of the likes of denilson.
Anderson is 10 times the player Denilson will ever be and he is younger.
One of the reasons we are 5th is that average players such as Denilson, Eboue and Bentdner are starting or getting alot of game time.
I watched the invinsibles DVD the other week and our club has fallen so far. These 3 would not have gotton on a 20 man bench back then. Apologies for the negativity.
what an inspiration! denilson shd face italians as well
gooner4lyf
henri saivet :) to much football manager!
Denilson didn’t get picked because he is shit. End of.
JohnnyMaverik//
Elano is like Dunga’s favourite player together with Gilberto Silva, he trust very hard in them. And to be honest Anderson is better, much better than Denilson. Denilson is both slow and weak.
denilson better dan anderson??
where did u get that one from
anyone know if were signing henri saviet by the way???..
it was rumoured
Have you seen Anderson play recently? He might have been good last season but he has been awful this season, that’s the reason he doesn’t get any playing time. Denilson, on the other hand, has been one of the brightest sparks of our season. We were doing good for the first 5 games and Denilson was awesome, he scored or assisted almost every game. Than injuries kicked in and he hasn’t really played his position ever since.
AaronFC, they are the same age, both 20 year (less than 2 months between them). Please get your facts right. What is so great about Anderson? I was a big fan of his, especially how agressive he is. But he can’t kick a ball, has never scored for United and often looks like a headless chicken. If there’s anything I hate it’s those who are constantly slating Denilson, like he is the reason we haven’t done well this season. He has done a lot more than Cesc did before his injury and he has been of much better use than Adebayor. IMO, only RvP and Nasri have played better than him, Walcott and Djourou are maybe on par.
Nick, Denilson and Song are all so talented. The problem is that they are all being played together with no experience or leadership among them, being played out of position and under way too much pressure. It doesn’t help that the experienced ones are as talentless as Eboue or as uninterested as Adebayor. If we had had a midfield of Nasri, Cesc, Denilson and Rosicky then I know everybody would be raving about Denilson now. Unfortunately we don’t and instead he has to play with fools like Diaby and Eboue and the talented but not-yet-ready Song (I hate when people blame it all on him for the same reason).
gotta agree – anderson is potentially a great cm. can’t really see what denilson is, or going to be. not enough imagination to be the attacking cm, not enough strength/pace to be a defensive cm. was outshone by song, who had a decent 2nd half on sat, and who has the presence to be a decent def cm. no way is he ahead of cesc, and with the likes of nasri offering more of a threat in that position, and ramsey/JET/lansbury waiting in the wings, can’t see what options are open to him. part of the reason we started the season so badly was the parternship of cesc/denilson just didn’t work. cesc’s form (in part anyway) dipped because of that.
he’s done well – but really, can he really be considered as an heir to the cm’s we’ve had over the past 10 yrs? he’s a decent player, but in this position, you need more than just “decent”.
He has done a lot more than Cesc did before his injury
Surely Stone you cannot be serious?
Hey, beautiful blog, Sanderson!
Greetings from Brazil!
Abraço e sucesso!
TSalvatore
I agree with everything stone just wrote.
Well my point would be, whether ones slightly better than the other (and they certainly arent far apart in ability if u ask me), Anderson has 8 caps for Brazil where as Denilson has yet to make his debut. Its a friendly so surely giving Denilson his debut, in a season where hes started to play much more for the first team where as other players who are tried and tested for Brazil like Anderson and Elano have been playing quite a bit less than Denilson and to what their used to, wouldent be a bad idea.
I meen whether you like or dislike Denilson we’re still talking about a player who has captained Brazil at every age level since he played for their U15’s and has played 68 professional games at a high level in both Brazil and England, two of the worlds biggest leagues, at the age of (nearly) 21, and has shown hes got a great pass and a cracking shot aswell as a quick pair of feet on his day.