His Premier League career had started all so well for Sandro, he was brought in by Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 2010 off the back of Internacional’s Copa Libertadores victory as a wide-eyed 20 year old.
Sandro was quoted as saying that Spurs were a “great fit for me” and that “a club that is growing every year makes it an ideal club for me”. You could have forgiven the young Brazilian for thinking the North London club were a regular force in the Champions League as he made his European debut at the San Siro in his new sides 1-0 win. He excelled in his role protecting the back four and even won man of the match in the return leg.
Sandro would go onto play 23 and 22 games respectively in the next two seasons as he began to make his mark on the Premier League. He signed a new deal at White Hart Lane in 2011 that should have been the platform for the man to become one of the best defensive midfielders in the league. Nonetheless he was sidelined by injury in January 2013 and subsequently ruled out of the rest of the campaign.
By then, coach Andre-Villas Boas had been replaced by Tim Sherwood and Sandro could only watch as his place in the team seemed to evaporate.
He was reunited with Harry Redknapp at Queens Park Rangers in 2014 but couldn’t stop the club returning to the Championship at the first attempt. Since then Sandro has been somewhat of a frustrating enigma and has only just been able to pull on the QPR colours as recently as August, missing the clubs first six games following a calamitous chain of events as the Brazilian was unable to obtain a visa.
Manager Chris Ramsey vowed that he won’t come straight back into the team as he hoped added competition will raise the game of his players as they look to shoot themselves back to the promised land.
Nonetheless, despite not playing for Selecao for five years if Sandro can recapture anything close to the form when he first broke onto the scene in England then he will have major part to play in QPR’s promotion push.
