8 Brazilian Footballers Who Bombed When They Landed in Europe

Brazil.

The mere possibility of a transfer from this country sends fans into frenzied excitement, drooling at the possibility of their team finally playing football with swagger, style, skill and panache.

Dribbling ability, exquisite technique, set piece brilliance and fantastic goal celebrations—the Brazilians have it all, right?

Right...some of the time.

Your Ronaldinho's, Ronaldo's, Kaka's and Romario's, sure.

But not everybody can sign, or find, one of those. Sometimes a team might think they've found one...but what they've really got is a more exotic-sounding Robbie Savage.

Hey, any name ending in an -inho has to be worth an extra £5 million, right?

Here are eight Brazilian players who flopped epically after arriving in Europe.

Breno

Breno Vinicius Rodrigues Borges, more commonly known as Bayern Munich defender Breno, was one of the most in-demand teenagers around when he left Brazil at age 18.

Having played over 20 league games for Sao Paolo at the time and being a member of the national team's under-23 squad, he had a big reputation to go with his big potential.

However, injuries and competition for places meant first-team football was scarce indeed.

A loan spell at Nuremberg did not prove much help as he suffered a cruciate ligament injury only nine weeks after arriving—which saw him return to Bayern in the summer still recuperating.

Now, four-and-a-half years after joining Bayern Munich, he has still made less than two dozen Bundesliga appearances for the German giants—and is currently serving a three-year nine-month prison sentence for arson, after which he will be deported back to his home country.

Edmundo

One of Brazil's most celebrated and most notorious forwards of all time, Edmundo scored almost 200 career goals and played for the national team on almost 40 occasions.

However, almost all of his success came in his home country, playing for the likes of Santos, Palmeiras and above all else Vasco da Gama, who he played for in six separate spells.

In Europe, though, it was a different story. Edmundo played two seasons with Fiorentina and less than a year with Napoli, managing a paltry 16 league goals.

No other European side was willing or able to take a punt on Edmundo, who mixed brilliance and ego with inconsistency and, on occasion, disciplinary problems.

Denilson

Once a world record holder for the most expensive transfer, Denilson's time in Spain with Real Betis can be best summed up as "OK."

After transferring from Sao Paolo for £21.5 million in 1998 (becoming the world's biggest fee as he left), Denilson found himself relegated within two seasons as his own performances mirrored that of the team: particularly poor.

A year back in Brazil on loan got him some first-team football, but that was about it for the left winger, blessed with lightning pace and sublime skills in his younger years.

He became a backup player at Betis upon his return before moving around the globe, taking up positions in Bordeaux, France; Al-Nassr, Saudi Arabia; and FC Dallas USA before going back to Brazil (twice), Vietnam and Greece, where he failed to play a single game before retiring.

Not really what you expect from the world's most expensive player.

Rafael Sobis

Poor old Real Betis, they're at it again.

Youth-level Brazilian hot shot Rafael Sobis attracted attention from all over Europe for his goalscoring exploits, though he played less than a hundred league games for his side Internacional.

Injuries however, were already a problem for the striker at this early stage of his career.

Betis made the move for him ahead of other sides, signing Sobis for an estimated €9 million on an eight-year deal.

Needless to say, he did not last the entirety of his contract. Two seasons in Spain were enough, as he scored just eight goals in La Liga before moving to Al-Jazeera in the UAE.

The only surprise was the fee that Betis received for him—the Emirates side paid €10 million for Sobis' services.

Adriano: 2nd Spell

After a goal-laden start to life in Italy with a spell at Parma in 2003-04 and a fine 2004-05 campaign with Inter Milan, Adriano's problems began.

Battles with weight and fitness, alcohol and attitude saw him loaned back to Brazil with Sao Paolo, where he started well initially but soon went off the rails. The death of his father was said to have caused the striker considerable personal problems.

2010 saw the return of Adriano to Italy with AS Roma, but as indicated in the photograph, he was far from peak physical condition.

Despite signing a three-year contract with Roma, Adriano was released just seven months later, having not returned to the country following treatment for an injury.

Adriano failed to score a single league goal in his second stint in Italy.

Kerlon

Kerlon—he of the "seal dribble."

Skilful and creative perhaps, but also prone to being absolutely walloped by unruly defenders tired of his showmanship and ball-juggling.

Kerlon started out at Cruzeiro and played for their first team in his teens before moving to Italy with Chievo. The top player of the South American U-17 championships struggled to make any sort of impact in Europe, though, with a succession of knee injuries curtailing his time at Inter Milan, who signed him in due course from Chievo.

A loan spell with Ajax failed to yield first-team football due to the same injuries, and before long Kerlon was on his way back to Brazil.

Kerlon was released upon the expiration of his Inter contract and subsequently moved back to his homeland.

Vitor Flora

Ever heard of Vitor Flora? No? Not a great surprise.

Flora was a reserve team striker for Liverpool who was plucked from nowhere, brought to England for two years, and shipped back off to Brazil upon the expiration of his contract—having played 11 times and scoring twice for the Reds' second string.

Absolutely unremarkable, except for the fact that it highlights and documents the vast numbers of substandard Brazilians who get a shot at the big time with a European club, despite not having any kind of pedigree or genuine potential on show.

The exported numbers of Brazilian footballers is huge, with well over 1,000 players exported in 2008 alone. That number had fallen slightly by the following year, but the number continues to be more than enough to populate an entire league of football squads.

Flora is just one example of these, but Eastern European teams, Portuguese teams and more recently Asian sides, are hungry to bring Brazilians to their shores in hopes of unearthing the next gem.

The reality of course, is that most fade back into relative obscurity—like Flora, who was last seen playing for Botafogo Futebol Clube of Sao Paolo, a small state side in Campeonato Paulista.

Keirrison

Meet Keirrison, a €14 million Barcelona striker who has been with the club for three years.

And has never played a first-team league game for them.

The Brazilian forward was seen as one of the best players to come out of the country just a few short years ago, showcasing his finishing skills, composure, dribbling ability and pace.

Once more, the former Coritiba and Palmeiras forward has done nothing but prove how wrong players and teams can get it sometimes, as he has been shunted out on loan to Fiorentina and Benfica in Europe, and then back to Brazil with Santos and Cruzeiro, all with very limited success.

It is expected that Keirrison will be released by Barcelona having never featured for them—a lesson for all sides, big and small, that when buying from Brazil, the price tag guarantees nothing.

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