Ricardo Rogério de Brito, better known by his nickname Alemão (born 22 November 1961), is a former Brazilian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a defensive midfielder. His nickname means ''German'' in the

Portuguese language Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and ...

. A tenacious and physical yet technically gifted player, Alemão was a strong, consistent, hard-working, and versatile midfielder, who excelled in a holding role as either a defensive midfielder or

deep-lying playmaker A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, due to his tactical intelligence, energy, tackling, and his ability to read the game, as well as his capacity to start attacking plays after winning back possession.

Nickname

The nickname, "Alemão" ("the German"), was attributed to his blond hair and fair complexion, making him similar in appearance to the many German immigrants in Brazil.

Playing career

Club

Born in

Lavras Lavras is a municipality in southern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Located at an altitude of 919 m, it has a population of 104,783 inhabitants (2020). The area of the municipality is 564.495 km2. The average annual temperature is 19.6°C and t ...

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

, Alemão started his career playing for a Minas Gerais' club called Fabril in 1980. In 1981, he moved to

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

, of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, where he stayed until 1987, winning the Bola de Prata award of

Placar Magazine ''Placar'' ( en, Score) is a monthly Brazilian sports magazine. Its first edition was issued by Editora Abril. on March 20, 1970, and since then it has become the most successful sports publication in Brazil, even though it focuses fully on foot ...

in 1985. In 1987, and in 1988, he played for

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

, of Spain, scoring six goals in 35 games, and won the

EFE Agencia EFE, S.A. () is a Spanish international news agency, the major multimedia news agency in Spanish language and the world's fourth largest wire service after the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. EFE was created in 1939 ...

Trophy as best South American player and the La Liga Foreign Player of the Year in 1988. Between 1988, and 1992, he played 93 games and scored nine goals for Napoli of Italy, playing alongside star offensive players like

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the FI ...

and Careca as a defensive foil. With Napoli, he won the UEFA Cup in 1989, scoring a goal in the final, followed by the

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

title and the

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seaso ...

in 1990. In 1992, he signed with

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

of Italy, scoring two goals in 40 games, until he left the club in 1994. In 1994, he returned to Brazil, playing 77 games and scoring two goals for

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

, winning two international titles with the club in 1994, the Copa CONMEBOL, and the

Recopa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Recopa Sudamericana ( pt, CONMEBOL Recopa Sul-Americana), known also as the Recopa Sudamericana or CONMEBOL Recopa, and simply as the Recopa (, ; "Winners' Cup"), is an annual international club association football, football compe ...

; he remained with the club until 1996, when he moved to

Volta Redonda Volta Redonda () is the name of a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro state of Brazil with an area of 182.81 km2, located from 350m to 707m above the sea level (22°31'23" S, 44°06'15" W) an ...

and retired from football.

International

Alemão was capped 39 times for the

Brazil national football team The Brazil national football team ( pt, Seleção Brasileira de Futebol), nicknamed ''Seleção Canarinho'' (‘Canary Squad’, after their bright yellow jersey), represents Brazil in men's international football and is administered by the B ...

, between June 1983, and June 1990, scoring six goals, and he was part of the national team squad for the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia ha ...

and the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being Me ...

. He was also part of the Brazilian team that won the

1989 Copa América The Copa América 1989 football tournament was hosted by Brazil, from 1 to 16 July. All ten CONMEBOL member nations participated. Brazil won their fourth Copa América, and first since 1949, by beating Uruguay 1–0 in the final match at the ...

. He played his last game for the Brazilian national team on June 24, 1990, when his team was defeated by

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in the second round of the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

Managerial career

Alemão started his managerial career in 2007, at Tupynambás, then in 2008, he was hired as manager of

América Mineiro The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, which was, on that season, on second division of the Minas Gerais State League, but was promoted to the first level under his management.

Honours

Club

;Napoli *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

: 1988–89 *

: 1989–90 *Supercoppa Italiana: 1990 ;São Paulo *

: 1994 * Copa CONMEBOL: 1994

International

;Brazil *

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

Individual

Bola de Prata Award: 1985 *

Trophy for Best South American Player of the Year: 1988 * La Liga Foreign Player of the Year: in 1988

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alemao, footballer, 1961 1961 births Living people People from Lavras Brazilian people of German descent Brazilian footballers Association football midfielders Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas players Atlético Madrid footballers S.S.C. Napoli players Atalanta B.C. players São Paulo FC players Volta Redonda FC players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players La Liga players Serie A players UEFA Cup winning players Brazil international footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players 1989 Copa América players 1990 FIFA World Cup players Copa América-winning players Brazilian expatriate footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Italy Brazilian football managers América Futebol Clube (MG) managers Nacional Futebol Clube managers Central Sport Club managers Atlético Rio Negro Clube managers Sportspeople from Minas Gerais