Philippe Coutinho will return to Vasco da Gama, the team where he was trained and where he briefly played at the beginning of his professional career. The announcement is imminent and generates high expectations among the supporters of the Rio de Janeiro team who have already adopted the hashtag #Coutinhoday.
Once considered one of the best footballers in the world, Barcelona paid 135 million euros for him in January 2018. His skill also left a mark on the Brazilian national team. He played for the Seleção’s youth teams and was key, with three goals, in winning the U-17 South American Cup. Wearing the number 10 on his back, he was also a champion at the U-20 World Cup held in Colombia in 2011.
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In 2010, at just 18 years old, he received his first call-up to the senior national team under the guidance of then coach Mano Menezes. Dunga called him up again four years later and he began to play regularly in the squad: he wore number 11 at the 2018 World Cup and won the 2019 Copa América.
Philippe Coutinho has scored Brazil's first free-kick since Neymar vs. Colombia in 2014 🇧🇷
Five years ago 🤯 pic.twitter.com/IzWHbV0gUA
— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 19, 2019
With Tite already on the bench, he played some matches in the South American qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, but injuries began to sideline him. His last game on the pitch was in the 5-1 win over South Korea, a friendly played in Seoul on June 2, 2022.
That day he also scored his last goal for the national team. Richarlison, a brace from Neymar with two penalties and Gabriel Jesus sealed the final result. Coutinho, now 32 years old, was on the bench in the following match against Japan, but did not come on.
On November 6, 2022, one day before the squad for Qatar 2022 was announced, the former Liverpool and Bayern Munich player was injured again. This left him out of the squad for that World Cup, in which Brazil was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Croatia.
