His three goals for Fluminense against Palmeiras has helped Fred recover from the shock of World Cup where the Brazilian national team crashed out due to shoddy football.
Fred ended the competition with a solitary goal, and was jeered by Brazilian supporters after being subsituted in Tuesday's 7-1 semi-final rout in Belo Horizonte.
Brazil strikers Fred and Neymar engaged in some light-hearted tomfoolery by pretending to bite teammates Marcelo and Dani Alves in training.
The victory secured the World Cup favourites Brazil top place in Group A, with a better goal difference than Mexico, and in theory an easier tie in the second round.
Brazil's Maracana football stadium, one of the sport's most hallowed and raucous grounds, has some new rules of etiquette: remain seated during games and please wear a shirt.
Brazil striker Fred has declared his wish to remain at Rio de Janeiro club Fluminense after reportedly attracting interest from English side Manchester City.
Folha de Sao Paulo declared Luiz Felipe Scolari's team had endeared itself to those yearning for Brazil's return to the "joga bonito". Another daily, Terra, said Neymar had "turned the tables" after Barcelona's 4-0 victory over the 21-year-old's former club Santos in the FIFA Club World Cup final in Japan in 2011.
After scoring his fourth goal of the Confederations Cup in the Maracana Stadium on Sunday, Neymar won the Golden Ball award as the best player of the tournament. "Brazil has shown to the world that this is the Brazilian national team and that we must be respected," Neymar said.
Del Bosque admitted Brazil were far better on the day - Spain looked exhausted and out for the count once Fred bundled in a second-minute opener for the hosts before Neymar and Fred again completed a one-sided affair. "They deserved it, and sometimes it is important to lose," said Del Bosque.
Brazil began the tournament with the words of Pele ringing in their ears, with the legendary No.10 questioning whether Scolari's team were good enough to prevail. Almost as important as the level of performance on the pitch was the re-bonding of Brazil's team with their fans, Scolari said.
Earlier Sunday, thousands of demonstrators marched toward Maracana, most of them peacefully. "There won't be a final," chanted some of them, who earlier released 20 balloons into the sky with a huge poster reading "FIFA, get out." The demonstrators ran in all directions under a cloud of tear gas but police awaited them at every corner.
The silver ball award went to Andres Iniesta, who struggled in a Spanish midfield which never found its game in the final - the usually incisive Barcelona star and his teammates could not conjure their usual dominance and seemed to have left too much out on the turf in edging Italy on spotkicks in the semi-final.
Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said the result as the perfect fillip as he plots a course to an assault on next year's World Cup finals in Brazil. His counterpart Vicente del Bosque meanwhile admitted Spain had been outclassed on the night. "There are no excuses. Brazil were better than us. We must congratulate them," del Bosque said.
The Confederations event is but a dress rehearsal and on taking the job seven months ago, 11 years on from World Cup glory in Japan, Scolari insisted the ongoing event is a sideshow and should not detract from the true aim of a success in 12 months time.
Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez, who led Uruguay to the Copa America title in 2011 to book a berth here, was sanguine afterwards. Matches between the South American neighbours have long been tense affairs - not least since the Uruguayans shocked the Brazilians in the 1950 World Cup final in Rio to deny their hosts a first title.
Some 250,000 people took to the streets of major cities on Monday to protest against the billions of dollars invested in major sporting events at the alleged expense of health and education.
The draw heaps pressure has been heaped on Brazil coach
Fluminense said Friday that Deco has already hired lawyers to defend him. The player vehemently denied any wrongdoing and said the result likely stemmed from contaminated vitamins.
