The Brazilian journalist, former player Jose Neto, opened fire on Tite, the coach of his country, after the official announcement of the “Seleção” list to participate in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
"This is a shame, a joke! I'm ashamed! Not because of the story of Dani Alves, but what is Martinelli's story? 33 goals in his career, this is disrespect for football," Neto said on his TV programme.
He added, "Doing this with football shows that you do not deserve the position you are in now... Calling Martinelli and not calling Gabigol (Flamingo player) is disrespect, it's the biggest shame of all the call-ups... You shouldn't occupy the position you occupy."
"No one knows the guy (Martinelli) who scored 5 goals in the season when he wanders into any mall here... while he doesn't call Gabigol, who scored the winning goal for the Libertadores, who scored 29 goals over the season," Neto added.
The 56-year-old added: "How many goals has Gabriel Jesus scored in these last games? Nothing. In the World Cup? Zero, in the qualifiers? Zero. He didn't score in 8 games."
The Seleção team is preparing to open its World Cup matches on the 24th of this month against Serbia, in the group that also includes Cameroon and Switzerland.
OFFICIAL: Brazil have announced their 26-man #WorldCup squad.
🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/DMy3UiQVf0
— TNC Football ⚽️ (@TNC_Football) November 7, 2022
Tite had announced the official Brazil squad for the Qatar World Cup, which includes 9 strikers 3 days ago, as follows:
Goalkeepers:
Alisson Becker (Liverpool, England), Ederson (Manchester City, England), Weverton (Palmeiras).
Defense:
Dani Alves (Pumas, Mexico), Danilo, Alex Sandro and Bremer (Juventus, Italy), Marquinhos (Paris Saint-Germain, France), Thiago Silva (Chelsea, England), Eder Militao (Real Madrid, Spain), Alex Telles (Sevilla, Spain).
Midfielders:
Casemiro and Fred (Manchester United), Fabinho (Liverpool, England), Bruno Guimaraes (Newcastle, England), Lucas Paqueta (West Ham, England), Everton Ribeiro (Flamingo).
Forwards:
Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain, France), Rafinha (Barcelona), Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo (Real Madrid), Richarlison (Tottenham, England), Anthony (Manchester United), Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal), Pedro (Flamgno). ).