MOSCOW, March 20 (RIA Novosti) - A Brazilian soccer school will open in southern Russia in a bid to discover the next Ronaldinho, a member of the Russian parliament's lower house said Monday.
"We want to instill Brazilian [soccer] style in Russians," Sergei Shishkaryov said, referring to school in the southern village of Kabardinka, the Krasnodar Territory.
Many might say that Russia needs this, as the national team performed poorly at Euro-2004 in Portugal and failed to make it to this summer's World Cup in Germany, where Brazil is tipped to retain its crown. Soccer legend and one-time sports minister of Brazil, Pele, is also known in the country for quipping that Russia would only win the trophy when his homeland became world hockey champions.
Shishkaryov added that talented soccer players aged between 12 and 14 would be selected at spring soccer tournaments in the southern resort towns of Sochi, Azov, Krasnodar and Anapa and would be sent for a few months' training in Brazil.
In exchange, he said, Brazilian children would come to Russia to study dancing under the tutelage of leading ballet masters.
The school will include four soccer fields - two with artificial playing surfaces - a hotel, a swimming pool and a gym, Shishkaryov said.
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