Seven of the 48 teams in the World Cup, which starts this Thursday (11), have players who play in the Brazilian Championship. In total, there are 32 athletes, representing ten first division clubs. The mark surpasses the previous record, of 27 names, in the 1974 edition, with 22 representing the green and yellow team itself - the rest were distributed across three teams (Uruguay, Chile and Argentina). Furthermore, the number is 357% higher than that of the last World Cup, in 2022, which brought together only seven players who played in Brazil. Related news: World Cup: Neymar's tests show 'good evolution', says CBF. With a stellar squad, Spain tops Group H of the World Cup. See dates and times for Brazil's World Cup games. "The big Brazilian [teams] don't have as many [market] competitors on the continent as the English ones, which compete with clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona [both from Spain], Bayern Munich [Germany], Paris Saint-Germain [France], among many others", analyzed, via press office, Marcos Casseb, partner at Roc Nation Sports Brazil, a company that works with career management. Joaquín Piquerez (photo), Palmeiras full-back, will defend the Uruguay national team, as will Guillermo Varela, Nico de la Cruz and Giorgian de Arrascaeta, who play for Flamengo - Cesar Greco/Palmeiras/reproduction prohibited Three countries share the spotlight: Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. Each has seven Brasileirão athletes in their respective teams. The Brazilian team has four names from Flamengo: defenders Danilo and Léo Pereira, left-back Alex Sandro and midfielder Lucas Paquetá. Completing the list of those who play here are goalkeeper Weverton (Grêmio), midfielder Danilo Santos (Botafogo) and striker Neymar (Santos). In the Uruguayan team, the majority of those called up also come from Rubro-Negro: full-back Guillermo Varela and midfielders Nico de la Cruz and Giorgian de Arrascaeta. From Palmeiras, full-back Joaquín Piquerez and midfielder Emiliano Martínez were called up. Two other Brasileirão clubs represented in the Celeste Olímpica are Internacional, with goalkeeper Sérgio Rochet; and Fluminense, with striker Agustín Canobbio. The Paraguayan team, in turn, has Verdão in the spotlight, with three names: defender Gustavo Gómez, midfielder Maurício (who is a naturalized Brazilian) and striker Ramón Sosa. Also playing in the Brasileirão are defenders Fabian Balbuena (Grêmio) and Junior Alonso (Atlético-MG), midfielder Damián Bobadilla (São Paulo) and striker Isidro Pitta (Red Bull Bragantino). Another team with three players from the same club in Brazil is Ecuador: full-back Ángelo Preçado, midfielder Alan Franco and striker Alan Minda, all from Atlético-MG. The tricolor team has, in total, five athletes who play here. The others are defender Felix Torres (Internacional) and striker Gonzalo Plata (Flamengo). The country that has grown the most in representation in the Brasileirão over the last five seasons, Colombia has called up four of the 26 athletes who are in Series A: midfielders Juan Portilla (Athletico-PR) and Jorge Carrascal (Flamengo)  and strikers Jhon Arias (Palmeiras) and Andrés Gómez (Vasco). Finally, two teams each have an athlete from the Brasileirão. Current champions, Argentina called up center forward Flaco Lopez, from Palmeiras. Since the 2006 World Cup, when midfielder Javier Mascherano and striker Carlos Tévez, then at Corinthians, were called up, the hermanos had not reached the World Cup with players playing in Brazil. Corinthians will be represented in the World Cup by striker Memphis Depay. The number 10 is the top scorer in the history of the Dutch national team, with 54 goals. It is the first time that a European athlete has been called up for the World Cup playing in the Brasileirão. "Brazilian football is no longer just an exporter of talent and has also started to position itself as a strategic market within the global sports chain", concluded, also through a press release, Alexandre Frota, executive director of FutPro Expo, an event about the football industry, which took place in Fortaleza at the beginning of May.