Some of the biggest football nomads are Brazilians, which is natural considering how many players the country produces each year. Even though there are over a dozen leagues in Brazil each with 20 teams, there is not enough teams to accommodate all Brazilian players.
Besides that, they are an exotic football race and are always attractive to international football clubs, which is why it’s easy for them to find a team to play. They have a natural talent and boast with skills, flair and the ability to both delight and amaze.
Australia has been one of those countries that tend to attract South Americans, especially players from Brazil. Australia is a country filled with football fans, sports bettors, and gamblers that love to bet at online casinos and bookmakers, wager on sports and play mobile games on their smartphones. Here is a powerful site set up by Aussies on how to detect a bad bet.
Strangely, very few of the samba kings have fired up the Australian A League (or commercially called the Hyundai A League), apart from a handful of players like Henrique (Brisbane Roar), Cassio Oliveira (ex-Adelaide United), Fred (ex- Melbourne Victory, ex- Wellington Phoenix and ex- Melbourne Heart) or Denni (ex-Newcastle Jets).
Henrique is one of three players currently playing in the A-league (the others are Gui Finkler and Sidnei) and is known for helping Brisbane Roar in winning two titles, while scoring in one of the finals. But why only so little Brazilians have managed to become successful in the Australian A league?
Well, statistics show that over a thousand Brazilians play professional football all around the world. Eighty percent of those gravitate towards Europe where probably the best football leagues are located. Not only that, the financial rewards across the European leagues are far bigger. Even places like the Middle East and China can offer some very good wages.
This leaves the A-league teams with almost ‘second-hand’ players that are lured mostly due to the lifestyle. For example, the best that Denni could do after leaving the Newcastle Jets, one of those Brazilians that have helped an A-league team to become a champion, is to play for semi-professional Maltese teams. This just shows that the A-league is still not capable of attracting first-class Brazilians. There are more examples of this.
But, there are also some good examples. Brisbane Roar’s striker Henrique is one of them. His predecessor Reinaldo was a good player too. Cassio Oliveira is another, a former left back that played for Adelaide United and one of the best left backs in the league. Fred was also one of the best players in the A-league that helped Melbourne Victory become champions in his first and only year for the team after which he signed for D.C. United (USA).
One of the more prominent Brazilians that has had a short stint in the A-league was Juninho, former Brazilian national team player that also played for Atletico Madrid, Middlesbrough, São Paulo, Vasco da Gama, Celtic, Palmeiras and of course, Sydney FC. He played only 14 games during the 2007-2008 season, and had a decent impact. Bruno Cazarine had a much more successful stint at Sydney FC scoring 17 goals on 50 games, but he was hardly a fan favourite.
The most famous Brazilian that has played in the A-league is definitely Romario. But, he turned out to be a well-publicised flop that played only four games for Adelaide United scoring 1 goal and had a forgettable performance. After all he was 40 years old. After that he went on to play 6 games for Vasco de Gama and then retired.
All in all more than 50 Brazilians have tried themselves out in the A-league, and only a few found it suitable to thrive there. Either the league is too physical and robust for a Brazilian, or the ones that come here are only lower-class players.
