Source: Four Four Two
Date: November 2009

With England and Brazil shortly to clash in Qatar (where else?), Josh Pedley looks at Brazilians who came, saw and (sometimes) conquered at clubs like Arsenal, Bolton, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and, er, Garforth...

Socrates

Now here's a proper midfielder. Standing 6ft 4in with big curly hair and a full-on beard, Socrates was one of the coolest footballers to have played the game.
And in 2004, he played for Garforth Town. Like you do.
The playmaker had hung up his boots in 1989, but made a personal appearance at the behest of Simon Clifford, an enthusiastic Brazilophile who just happens to be owner of Garforth Town.

Clifford also founded the Brazilian Soccer Schools – the world’s largest football coaching network – and the sister programme, SOCATOTS, the world’s first soccer-specific programme for young children.

Hence Socrates signing a one-month player/coach contract at the West Yorkshire club.
It was obviously a PR stunt, but Clifford plans for Garforth to reach the Premier League by 2025 and has enlisted the help of a number of famous Brazilians to help raise the club's profile.
The Garforth Town career of Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira lasted just 12 minutes, when the 50-year-old came on as a sub against Tadcaster Albion.
"It was far too cold,” he explained, "The second I got out I had this incredible headache, I'm just not used to it. The last time I saw snow was years and years ago.”
But that’s the problem with these fancy South Americans: they just can’t handle the British weather.

Juninho

If Mirandinha's move to Newcastle was more of a surprise for his nationality than his reputation, the same could not be said about Middlesbrough's £4.75m capture of the 22-year old Juninho Paulista in 1995.
True, there were plenty of unflattering comparisons between Teesside and the Copacabana. But whereas Mirandinha was an unknown to all but the most clued-up English fans, Juninho was probably more famous than the club he signed for.
One of the hottest youngsters in world football, wanted by many of Europe’s leading clubs, he elected to sign for Bryan Robson's Middlesbrough, newly promoted to the top flight and bursting with upstart positivity.
The naysayers were quick to claim he wouldn't last a tackle, let alone a harsh winter by the North Sea.
The naysayers were spectacularly wrong. Mixing undoubted skill with an English-pleasing determination and a wonderful down-to-earth sensibility – he moved his parents over and played in the streets with local children – Oswaldo Giroldo Junior felt so at home playing for Middlesbrough that he returned for a second a third spell at the club. 
His first spell was particularly eye-catching. All attacking élan, Juninho and Middlesbrough reached the finals of both domestic cups in 1997.

Juninho left the pitch in tears and the club that summer, but he would be back - initially on loan before re-signing for Boro in 2002, banishing the nightmare of relegation by helping the club to its first-ever senior trophy, the 2004 League Cup. 

Emerson

The summer after signing Juninho to be their midfield creator, Middlesbrough needed a midfield destroyer. And – apparently unbeknown to manager Bryan Robson – they bought Brazilian again.
On a good day Emerson Moises Costa was an energetic box-to-box midfielder with a great passing range and a ferocious striker of the ball. On a bad day, he was a passenger.
And not the kind who reads the map, keeps you awake and keeps you company on a long journey, but the kind who gets in the back of the car with a duvet and is out cold before you have even started the engine, waking only to complain.
Like Juninho, Emerson had turned down a number of offers from bigger European clubs to sign for Middlesbrough in 1996 after a successful spell under Bobby Robson at Porto.
But it seemed that Mrs Emerson was not quite so taken with Teesside and the midfielder started to take longer and longer to return from the frequent trips back to his homeland. Rumoured interest from Bobby Robson's new club Barcelona didn't help.