Cristiane is back in the Brazilian team. The player was called up by coach Arthur Elias for a training period at Granja Comary, in Teresópolis, Rio de Janeiro. This Wednesday (19), the striker participated in her second training session with Amarelinha and commented on the feeling of representing Canarinho again.
“It’s a really crazy feeling, right? It feels like I’m coming for my first call. It seems like a joke to be saying this, but it’s been almost two years away, not being with the group, not being here at Granja. When I entered the room I even thanked to Heavenly Father for the opportunity given by the commission and Arthur.”
Her last call-up was also for a training period, also at Granja Comary, in April 2021. After so long, she says she considers this opportunity as something new and as a chance to do something different.
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“Arthur and the coaching staff have always made it very clear that age won’t matter to them, it will matter what we present daily here on the field, within our work. This gives a lot of confidence to the more experienced athletes. I think that we can bring this help to the girls who are arriving now, to the new generation, to the girls who are being called up for the first time.”
The athlete has an extensive history with the Brazilian team. Called up for the first time in 2001, Cristiane has accumulated 53 calls, 167 games and 116 goals scored.
When it comes to the World Cup, the striker has emblematic numbers. There are 21 games and 1,563 minutes, being the third player with the longest time playing for Canarinho in the competition, behind only Formiga and Marta. She is also Brazil’s second top scorer in World Cups, with 11 goals.
“I think that this time of experience, especially mine and Marta, we are the cast’s aunts (we are the oldest), brings help in integration with the rest of the group and confidence, of course, first coming from the technical committee in our work, makes us train and work very calmly.”
Cristiane revealed that she returns to the team with a different mentality and that, even though she is one of the most experienced athletes on the team, she is also there to learn.
“We always have a very different mentality than when we were younger. And I, with all the experience, everything I’ve lived, everything I’ve been through, this time away has brought me a lot of different things to know how to deal with now, to learn , to evolve”, he said.
“I’m a student among everyone else, I’m no different from anyone else, no matter how many years of national team I have, how many competitions I’ve played in, I’m a student. So I’m here to learn from the committee, I’m here to learn from the younger players too and I hope to be able to contribute with the experience”, he added.
Finally, the player also evaluated the arrival of Arthur Elias and his team at Canarinho and reinforced that she will do her best to remain in the coach’s next calls.
“I think it’s going to be a really cool period! Arthur brought a lot of different things to what I’ve experienced elsewhere, even within the national team itself, and I think it’s going to be a really cool integration.”
“I want to do my best here to, consequently, be able to be in the next squads. The best I can do now and throughout the championships I’ve been competing in, I’ll try to do to be within this group. This squad with all this mix and integration, and the technical committee provides an opportunity for us to talk, so that we can interact and bring our experience as well”, she concluded.
