Looking at the top ten European leagues according to UEFA’s coefficient system (excluding the Russian league, which is still ongoing due to its different scheduling), Sambafoot presents a list of the Brazilians who have helped their team to win a trophy this season (players marked with an asterisk * left the club mid-season):
1. England
Premier League: Manchester United – 3 Brazilians (Anderson, Fabio and Rafael)
FA Cup: Manchester City – 1 Brazilian (Jo)
2. Spain
La Liga: Barcelona – 3 (Dani Alves, Maxwell and Adriano)
Copa del Rey: Real Madrid – 2 (Kaka and Marcelo)
3. Germany
Bundesliga: Borussia Dortmund – 3 (Dede, Felipe Santana and Antonio da Silva)
DFB-Pokal: Schalke 04 – 2 (Edu and Danilo Avelar)
4. Italy
Serie A: AC Milan – 3 (Alexandre Pato, Thiago Silva and Robinho)
Coppa Italia: Internazionale – 5 (Julio Cesar, Lucio, Maicon, Philippe Coutinho and Mancini*)
5. France
Ligue 1 and Coupe de France: Lille – 2 (Tulio de Melo and Emerson)
Coupe de la Ligue: Marseille – 3 (Hilton, Brandao* and Elinton Andrade)
6. Portugal
Primeira Liga and Taça de Portugal: FC Porto – 6 (Helton, Maicon, Hulk, Walter, Souza and Fernando Reges)
Taça da Liga: Benfica – 9 (Airton, Luisao, Julio Cesar, Felipe Menezes, Weldon, David Luiz*, Sidnei, Alan Kardec and Jardel)
(7 is Russia where the season is still ongoing)
8. Ukraine
Ukrainian Premier League and Ukrainian Cup: Shakhtar Donetsk – 7 (Fernandinho, Jadson, Luiz Adriano, Willian, Douglas Costa, Alex Teixeira and Bruno Renan)
9. Netherlands
KNVB Cup: FC Twente – 2 (Douglas and Bruno Smith)
10. Turkey
Super Lig: Fenerbahce – 5 (Alex de Souza, Cristian, Andre Santos, Fabio Bilica and Deivid*)
Turkiye Kupasi: Besiktas – 2 (Bobo and Rodrigo Tabata*)
11. Greece
Superleague Greece: Olympiacos – 2 (Dudu Cearense and Leandro)
Greek Cup: AEK Athens – 2 (Leonardo and Eder)
From this list, we can see that an incredible 62 Brazilian players played some part in helping a top European side win a trophy this season. In fact, the only competition from these countries that was won by a team without any Brazilians was the Dutch Eredivisie, which was won by Ajax. However, the only Brazilian manager to win a trophy this season was Leonardo at Inter.
The trophy-winning team with the most Brazilians was Benfica with nine, while every successful side had at least two players from Brazil in their squad. The top Brazilian scorer in Europe was Fenerbahce’s Alex de Souza with 28 goals, followed by Porto’s Hulk with 23.
And to top it all off, Barcelona’s and Porto’s samba stars were able to celebrate continental success, winning the Champions League and the Europa League respectively. Congratulations from Sambafoot to all of the Brazilians involved!
