Everton Ribeiro.

I know the player Everton Ribeiro. Left-footed midfielder. During the 2014/15 season he played for the Dubai club Al Ahli.

He arrived with a reputation for being one of Brazil’s best players; in recent years he twice had been designated the best player in Brazil’s domestic top flight.

Turns out, he wasn’t the best player in the Arabian Gulf League. He wasn’t even the best player at Ahli.

And that may begin to explain why Brazil’s national team ain’t what it used to be.

It has been a long while since Brazil was Brazil. Last World Cup victory? 2002. Last Copa America victory, now that they are out of Chile 2015? That would be 2007.

The thing about Brazil is that the sense of them being special as well as really, really good, favorites to win every competition they enter, is badly dated.

In 2015, Brazil is a team of decent skill that doesn’t seem to play together well and is apt to crumble when confronted by a determined opponent.

(See: Germany 7, Brazil 1, 2014 World Cup. See: Everton Ribeiro shooting second for Brazil in the 4-3 shootout loss to Paraguay, 2015 Copa America.)

Dunga, the grim Brazil coach, who has the most inappropriate nickname in soccer history (“Dunga” means “Dopey”, like the Disney character, but Dunga is not doltish or amusing or endearing) … is in danger of losing his job, after this tournament (which included a 1-0 group loss to Colombia), but he made an interesting comment after the Paraguay disaster.

“We have to rethink Brazilian football, not only on the field,” he said. “We have to recognize that other nations have improved, and we must be humble and understand that it’s time to get to work. We know we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

The suggestion there being that Brazil has gotten sloppy and lazy. And it’s hard to argue against Dunga’s assessment.

Brazil has some victories since the 2002 World Cup. The 2003 Copa. The 2007 Copa. The past three Confederations Cups, including the 2013 edition which indicated the end of Spain’s dominance.

The Copa cannot be discounted, but the Confederations Cup can be. One of those Confederations victories was over the U.S. and in all of them the elite international sides do not quite give their best effort.

What matters, of course, is the World Cup, and Brazil still hasn’t gotten past the 7-1 humiliation, at home, to Germany in the 2014 World Cup semifinals.

At the moment, it looks like Brazil has one very good player, Neymar (banned from the quarterfinal and, boy, was he missed), and then several pretty good players — guys who can earn significant money playing overseas but are unlikely to help you beat Germany. Or Paraguay in a tight spot.

Much of the trouble seems to be in the forward positions. This is where Brazil once was untouchable. Pele. Romario. Ronaldo, et al.

Now? Fred. Hulk, Firmino, Robinho.

My colleague, Ali Khaled, is one of the millions of soccer fans who came to expect great things from Brazil, which they produced regularly in the 1960s and 1970s. In terms of panache as well as skill, and results. But Brazil has not been providing on either level.

He noted that Brazil’s many fans internationally, as well as domestically. “The last year has seen Brazil hit new lows,” he wrote. “Fans can just about tolerate winning ugly; but no one said anything about losing ugly.”

Well put.

Brazil has gone out in the quarterfinals of the past two Copa Americas. Out in the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup; out in the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup. Nuked in the semifinals of their home World Cup, last year.

For me, it comes back to Everton Ribeiro. A small, innocuous guy. Good enough for a real career. Not good enough, by far, to be on the pitch for the Brazil we once knew.