Internet 'discovered' kid soccer star ... could you be next?

Back in high school in the late 1970s, there was this one English teacher — a guy with long hair — who could find ways to discuss the existential nature of the human soul as found in an Archie comic book or the never-ending struggle between ego and id as depicted in an Art Buchwald column.

Anyway, you can do this with the Internet: Take what might be frivolous pop culture moments and thrash out something deep about the transformative power of the Net, the technology-driven march of globalization and the delicate balance between humanity and Moore's Law.

But with the help of some tech-industry experts, we'll give it a try here on a sober workday, analyzing the story of 9-year-old Jean Carlos Chera, Internet soccer phenomenon.

The story made a splash this past week in newspapers from China to Argentina to London. Chera is just a little boy playing soccer in the pleasant riverside agricultural city of Campo Mourao in southern Brazil — kind of a South American Omaha without Warren Buffett.

Chera, no doubt, thinks that burps are hilarious and that showers and soap are the equivalent of medieval torture devices, because such attitudes are universal among 9-year-old boys. He might even get antsy when his coach talks too much and start throwing dirt clumps at his teammates — unless that only happens when I coach 9-year-olds in soccer.

The difference is that Chera is a breathtaking soccer player, and professional teams such as Manchester United — the New York Yankees of soccer — want to sign him to a development contract. Chera might be the youngest athlete ever courted by pro teams.

In the pre-Internet era, there was little likelihood that Manchester United's coaches — much less soccer fans worldwide — would ever find out about a preteen player in Brazilian farm country. But Chera's team, Associacao Desportiva Atletica, has a Web site. And on that site, it posted video of some of Chera's exploits.

Apparently, not a lot happened until an Argentine newspaper, Clarin, published a report about Chera and posted the video on its Web site. In one of those classic Internet minutes, people e-mailed their friends with the link to the video. It was instantly forwarded until it circled the globe and reached coaches at the highest levels of European soccer.

The video does get your attention. Nine-year-olds aren't supposed to have that kind of poise and deft touch. Chera dribbles around multiple players. He puts shots into the upper corner of the net from near midfield. He juggles the ball three or four times before popping it past the goalie.

In the USA, Freddy Adu started getting professional attention when he was about 11, but no one in soccer knows of a 9-year-old — from a remote region, to boot — sparking worldwide interest.

Manchester United and Portugal's FC Porto saw the video and got in touch, even asking Chera's family to move to Europe. At least five or six other pro European teams have reportedly contacted Chera's club. Once that bit of news got out early this week, the global media jumped on it, igniting another blast of interest in the Web-based video and making Chera an instant worldwide superstar.

Chera's story is, in fact, a microcosm of the changes brought on by the Internet. The Net crosses borders and makes business more global than ever, which, in turn, cranks up the level of competition. Top teams can try to find and lock up talent anywhere in the world, and now it's driving them to sign a 77-pound boy.

"The Net can connect a really good idea in Bled, Slovenia, with a need for that idea in Anchorage," says Web consultant and author John Patrick. "The new news is that with the vast improvement in audio and video capabilities of the Net, a good idea or budding athlete can be seen or heard."

"Technology is speeding up and globalizing the talent-sourcing and talent-development process," says Rowan Gibson, who runs German-based consulting firm Rethinking Group. Adds Alan Ramadan, an Australian who started now-defunct Web site Quokka Sports and is at Macromedia: "There will be an explosion of new ways for professional teams to get connected with up-and-coming sports stars."

In soccer, instead of waiting for promising youngsters to work their way up, teams will use the Net to cherry-pick budding stars early. And on the other end, you can bet youth teams everywhere will start posting videos of top players.

But it doesn't have to be about soccer. Tech research labs might find a high school math prodigy who posts some of his theories on a Web site. An unknown writer in Ozona, Texas, might start a blog that leads to a book deal with a New York publisher.

"The Net means you don't have to wait around to be discovered anymore," Gibson says. "That goes for all of us — no matter what we might excel at."

And what of seeking balance between humanity and Moore's Law? Chera shows just how those borders are shifting. The Net is threatening Chera's childhood by bringing the serious grown-ups to his door. "He still needs to be a kid," Adilson Batista Prado, the president of Chera's team, says in stories out of Brazil.

More broadly, blogs — Web-based journals — are letting the world into individuals' lives as never before. Amazon.com knows what you like to read. These things are good and bad — new outlets for expression and ways to get book recommendations, vs. loss of privacy. The deeper the Net moves into life, the more we'll wrestle with such matters.

Or you might say it's the older, simpler wholesome values of Betty vs. the allure of modern consumerism and hedonism as represented by Veronica.

Kevin Maney has covered technology for USA TODAY since 1985. His column appears Wednesdays. Click here for an index of Technology columns. E-mail him at: kmaney@usatoday.com.


		Brazilian soccer wiz Jean Carlos Chera, 9, became an Internet phenomenon overnight.
		AP