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Home|Football News|Players|Brazilians in Europe
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Brazilians in Europe
Elber, Jardel, Anderson, Donato... and other almost-great Brazilians - idols in Europe, almost anonymous at homeOzren Podnar reports...The Brazilian production line of top-class soccer players shows no sign of letting up. Thanks in part to a huge pool of boys and girls playing soccer (Brazil has a population of 186 million, rising quickly) and in part due to a well organized youth system, hundreds of excellent players are produced each year. For many of them there is no place in their homeland, so they move abroad and in some cases become citizens of their adopted countries. So Deco became a Portuguese, Donato a Spaniard, Paulo Rink a German, Eduardo Da Silva a Croat, Dos Santos Silva a Tunisian and Wagner Lopes, Rui Ramos and Dos Santos Japanese.
There have been so many great Brazilian players circulating around the globe that it makes one wonder whether there would have been any difference in Brazil's achievements had they played Donato, Elber, Jardel, and Anderson instead of the people we all know like Romario, Bebeto, Ronaldo or Dunga. What would have been wrong with a Brazilian national team in the late eighties fielding Baltazar and Paulinho upfront instead of Careca and Romario? Is Ronaldo really so superior to Elber or Anderson as to have virtually blocked the way to the national team for these two supremely successful goal poachers? Would Donato have made as great a midfield general as Dunga?Still, for many Brazilians, European glory meant nothing in getting them any closer to the coveted verde-amarelha team shirt. Consider poor Mario Jardel, who notched 195 goals in seven seasons for Porto, Galatasaray and Sporting, counting only league championships. He must have hoped that his 42 goals in 30 games scored in the 2001/02 season would have taken him to the World Cup in Japan and Korea, but Luiz Felipe Scolari picked a recovered Ronaldo alongside Rivaldo and Luizao - and got it right. Ronaldo topped the scoring chart with eight goals whereas a demoralized Jardel gave up and renounced the national team altogether after just 10 caps. They are far too many Boys from Brazil who play great soccer, and to win the status of a national team regular a player has to be a phenomenon of sorts. Which is incidentally how they call Ronaldo, "il Fenomeno". They did not make it for the national teamAILTON Goncalves Birth date: 19. 7. 1973 Bundesliga's top scorer in 2004 with 28 goals. German champion in 2004 and Cup winner in 1999 and 2004. Brazil was not interested in fielding him. Qatar wanted to "sign" him, but FIFA would not authorize the transfer. Sonny ANDERSON Birth date: 19. 9. 1970 Won six national League titles in Europe (in 1994 with Servette, in 1997 with Monaco, in 1998 and 1999 with Barcelona and in 2002 and 2003 with Lyon). Three times top scorer in France (1997, 2000 and 2001). 138 goals in the French championship. BALTAZAR Morais Birth date: 17. 6. 1959 Top scorer in the Spanish 1st Division in 1989 with 35 goals and in the Spanish 2nd Division in 1987 with 34 goals. Paulinho CASCAVEL Birth date: 27. 11. 1959 Top scorer in the Portuguese championship in 1987 (22 goals) and 1988 (23 goals). Until Jardel, the most prolific Brazilian striker in Portugal. DECO Sousa Birth date: 27. 8. 1977 Helped Porto win two Portuguese League titles, a UEFA Cup and a Champions League in two consecutive seasons. Spanish champion with Barcelona in his first season. Naturalized Portuguese, appeared in the European Championship finals. DERLEI Fernandes da Sousa Birth date: 14. 7. 1975 Scorer in two consecutive winning European finals with Porto: in 2003 against Celtic and in 2004 against Monaco. DONATO Gama Silva Birth date: 30. 12. 1962 Played in a top league the Primera División even after turning 40. Won four Spanish Cups and one League. Appeared in Euro'1996 for Spain. Giovane ELBER Birth date: 23. 7. 1972 The top foreign goalscorer in the history of Bundesliga with 133 goals. Won four German League titles and one in France. Champions League and Intercontinental Cup winner in 2001. EWERTHON Henrique Birth date: 10. 6. 1981 Daniel da Silva CARVALHO Birth date: 1. 3. 1983. Mario JARDEL Birth date: 18. 9. 1973. Highlights: Three times Golden Boot winner for the top European goalscorer (1999 with 36 goals, 2000 with 38 goals and 2002 with an amazing 42 goals). Four times Portuguese champion. Winner of the Copa Libertadores in 1995. |
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