EXCLUSIVE: Ze Roberto on next Brazil boss and Germany's title battle
Brazil are without a manager at the moment with Tite resigning following their quarter-final defeat to Croatia at the World Cup.
Ze Roberto, who picked up 84 caps, feels that football in the country would benefit from the national team having a foreign coach take over.
He thinks that such an appointment would help the nation regain a leading role in the sport.
"When you talk about innovation, renewal, Brazilian football returning to the forefront, I think we should think about a foreign coach," he said.
"There are many good foreign coaches who would accept the command of the Brazilian national team. I'd welcome this because our football has fallen a little behind in many aspects."
Despite hoping for a foreigner to take the helm, Ze Roberto makes an exception for Fernando Diniz. The Fluminense coach is the only Brazilian he sees fit for the job at the moment.
"Also because of the supply of coaches in Brazil," he added. "In the past, you had a wider range. Today we don't have many options.
"If it has to be a Brazilian, the best today is Fernando Diniz."
Alongside Cacau, a former striker of Stuttgart and the German national team, Ze Roberto worked to promote the Bundesliga at the Sports Summit.
With spells at Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich and Hamburg, the Brazilian former midfielder spent just under half of his 23-year career in Germany.
Given his experience, he believes the 2022/23 Bundesliga season - which has seen Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund contest a tight title fight, with the latter one win away from ending Bayern's decade-long reign at the top - is a return to the good old days of German football.
"This season is the most enjoyable in recent years," he said. "For 10 years Bayern dominated, and this season is different. They have met a team that is beating them (Dortmund).
"It's very good because the Bundesliga, at the time I played, was a league that I considered to be fierce. I used to say that there were three or four strong clubs in contention for the title."
The future of Brazilian club football was the big main theme of the Sports Summit in 2023 and raised many debates about the model to be adopted in the coming years for the top division.
In Ze Roberto's opinion, the Bundesliga shows that organisation is the basis of a strong championship.
"To form a new league, the main point is organisation," he stated. "Without it, you can't form anything.
"So this is a key point for the formation of the league, but I believe that the mentality in Brazil is still behind."
