Best Brazilian Born Footballers Who Played for Other Countries

There is nothing that a Brazilian football player loves more than playing for his country. At least that is true for the majority of them. Some players decided to say goodbye to Brazil and play for other national teams. Most of them did so because they weren’t good enough to make the Brazil squad, but […]
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sambafoot_admin
2020-02-13 18:54:00

There is nothing that a Brazilian football player loves more than playing for his country. At least that is true for the majority of them. Some players decided to say goodbye to Brazil and play for other national teams. Most of them did so because they weren’t good enough to make the Brazil squad, but we tried to single out the most respected names who were born in the country of Samba but picked other teams over Seleção.

Pepe

Pepe is arguably the biggest name on this list. The robust defender was born in Maceio and played for the local team in his youth career. However, Pepe moved to Maritimo in 2001, and that was the start of his extremely successful European career. Over the years, he played for Porto, Real Madrid, and Besiktas, and he is now back in Porto as his final stop in the playing career.

While Pepe was in Brazil, he was never invited to a youth national team. His father said that Dunga wanted to call him to Seleção in 2006, but he declined. That is how he received Portuguese citizenship in 2007. Pepe now has more than 100 caps for Portugal, as well as a trophy of the UEFA Euro 2016.

He is still an active member of the Portuguese national team, getting ready for Euro 2020.

Mauricio Viana

We picked Mauricio Viana because he made the news in 2014 for an unbelievable reason. Viana was playing for Santiago Wanderers in the Chilean League when he clashed with the opposing attacker. The clash perforated the goalkeeper’s intestines, but he was unaware of that at the time. Viana stayed on the pitch and saved a penalty, which earned his team a draw. After the match, the goalkeeper needed to have emergency surgery.

Viana was born in Sao Paulo, but he played for the Chilean club ever since youth ranks. It only made sense that he received Chilean citizenship since he spent the entire career in that country.

Thiago Motta

Thiago Motta is a retired footballer who is trying to make it as a manager. Motta had an incredibly successful playing career since he played for Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Genoa, Inter, and Paris Saint-Germain.

Motta was born in Sao Bernardo do Campo, and his career started in Juventus-SP. Barcelona acquired him in 1999 when he was only 17 years old. It is interesting to note that Motta played for both Brazil U17 and Selecao, but decided to become a member of the Italian national team in 2011. Until the end of his career, he made 30 appearances for Italy.

Diego Costa

Diego Costa is another player that has dual citizenship – Brazilian and Spanish. He played for Brazil on two occasions, but even though he was born in Lagarto, he expressed the desire to play for Spain in 2013. Costa had 24 caps for the Spanish national team but failed to win anything.

However, he won two Premier League titles and La Liga throughout his playing career. With Atletico Madrid, Costa also won UEFA Europa League and was the UEFA Super Cup winner on three occasions.