Vinicius Junior, Brazil’s star football player and part of first eleven squad for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in India, will not be playing for Brazil in the tournament after he was barred to travel to India from his Brazil club Flamengo. The 17 year-old Brazilian forward was earlier slated to land in India on Saturday.
Vinicius had an agreement with Flamengo that he can travel to India only if his team wins the Cup in Brazil, which did not happen.
“We want the best for Vinicius, he is an intelligent and important player for the national team, but he has not participated in the preparation weeks that they have had,” Flamengo coach Reinaldo Rueda has been quoted as saying.
In May this year, Real Madrid completed a deal to sign promising Brazilian youngster from Flamengo in a deal that will go through in July 2018 for a transfer fee of €45million (approx Rs.350 crore).
Brazil, placed in Group D alongside North Korea, Niger and Spain, face the European champions in the opening fixture of their U-17 World Cup campaign on October 7 in Kochi and are currently camping in Mumbai where they defeated New Zealand 2-0 in a friendly.
