, often known as Alex, is a former 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 ...

who played as a

midfielder 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 ...

. Born in Brazil, he became a Japanese citizen and made 82 appearances for the Japan national team.

Club career

Santos was born in Maringá in Paraná and moved to Japan in 1994 at the age of sixteen. He enrolled in Meitoku Gijuku High School in Kōchi and played football for the school club. After graduating from the school, he joined the

J1 League The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the J ...

team

Shimizu S-Pulse is a professional Japanese football club. Located in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, S-Pulse currently competes in the J2 League (J2). The club was formed in 1991 as a founding member of the J.League (''"Original Ten"''), which began ...

in 1997. In 1999, the club won the second place and he received the J.League Player of the Year. In Asia, the club won the champions 1999–2000 Asian Cup Winners' Cup and third place 2000–01 Asian Cup Winners' Cup. In August 2002, Santos agreed to join English

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

. But he was denied a work permit by the Home Office because he had not made the minimum number of national team appearances required for players from outside the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

and returned to Shimizu for the remainder of the season. In January 2004, he left Shimizu to join the

Urawa Reds , colloquially Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, is a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan. The club plays in the J ...

. After won the second place at

for two years in a row ( 2004,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

), the club won the champions in 2006 J1 League. In January 2007, Santos was loaned out to Red Bull Salzburg. He went back to Urawa in January 2008. He received a serious injury in a test match and had only one appearance in this season. In July 2009, he agreed to move to

Nagoya Grampus (formerly known as ) is a Japanese association football club that plays in the J1 League, following promotion from the J2 League in 2017. Based in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture and founded as the company team of the Toyota, Toyota Motor Corp. in 1939 ...

.名古屋が三都主獲り、大型補強第３弾
Nikkan sport, 26 July 2009 He made 55 appearances for the club, before joining

J2 League The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yas ...

side

Tochigi SC , commonly referred to as Tochigi SC are a football club based in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. They currently play in the J2 League. History Teachers in Tochigi Prefecture founded the club in 1953. They were initially called self-ex ...

for the 2013 season. He made 25 appearances there, scoring twice. In January 2014, he joined fellow J2 League team FC Gifu.

International career

In 2001, Santos obtained Japanese citizenship. He made his first appearance for Japan national team on 21 March 2002, against

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, and he was part of

Philippe Troussier Philippe Omar TroussierOctober's ten - Religious conversions

's selection for the 2002 World Cup. He was the second foreign-born person to play for Japan in the World Cup finals after

Wagner Lopes is a football manager and former player who played as a forward. Born in Brazil, Lopes is a naturalised Japanese citizen and represented their national team on 20 occasions. After retiring he took up coaching, mainly working in both his ho ...

, who played in the 1998 World Cup and also the fifth naturalized citizen to play for Japan after

Daishiro Yoshimura (former name; Nelson Yoshimura, ネルソン吉村) was a Japanese football player and manager. He played for Japan national team, having naturalized in 1970. Club career Yoshimura was born in São Paulo, Brazil on August 16, 1947. He moved ...

George Yonashiro is a former Japanese Brazilian (Nisei) football player and manager. In January 1985, he obtained his Japanese citizenship, and played for Japan national team. Club career Yonashiro was born in São Paulo, Brazil on November 28, 1950. He joined ...

Ruy Ramos is a former football player and manager, originally from Brazil, who spent his career in Japan and played for the Japan national team. Ramos is currently active as a television personality and ''tarento'', represented with Irving. Club car ...

, and Lopes. After Zico took over as the national team manager, Santos was used on the left side of the Japanese lineup, as a full-back in a 4-4-2 formation or a midfielder in a 3-5-2 formation. At the 2004 Asian Cup, he played in all 6 matches and Japan won. He was selected in Japan's 2006 World Cup squad in May 2006, providing an assist for

Keiji Tamada is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a forward for V-Varen Nagasaki. Club career Tamada joined Kashiwa Reysol from Narashino High School in 1999. His debut was the game against Avispa Fukuoka on 13 March 1999. Kashiwa Reysol won ...

in a group stage match against his former country

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. He played 82 games and scored 7 goals for Japan until 2006.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Santos goal.''

Honours

Shimizu S-Pulse *

Asian Cup Winners' Cup The Asian Cup Winners' Cup was an association football competition run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The competition was started in 1991 as a tournament for all the domestic cup winners from countries affiliated to the AFC. The winne ...

: 1999–2000 *

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or also Japan FA Cup is a Japanese football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football match in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formation of the J.League, Japan Football League and their predecessor, J ...

: 2001 *

Japanese Super Cup The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is an annual one-match association football competition in Japan organised by J. League and the Japan Football Association (JFA). This competition serves as the season opener and is played between the r ...

: 2002 Urawa Red Diamonds *

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

: 2002, 2006 Red Bull Salzburg * Austrian Bundesliga: 2006–07 Nagoya Grampus *

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Japan * AFC Asian Cup: 2004 Individual * J.League MVP: 1999 *

Best Eleven: 1999

References

External links

* *
Japan National Football Team Database
*

, FIFAworldcup.com, 22 June 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Santos, Alessandro 1977 births Living people Brazilian emigrants to Japan Naturalized citizens of Japan People from Maringá Brazilian footballers Japanese footballers Association football midfielders Japan international footballers J1 League players J2 League players Shimizu S-Pulse players Urawa Red Diamonds players Nagoya Grampus players Tochigi SC players FC Gifu players Austrian Football Bundesliga players FC Red Bull Salzburg players J1 League Player of the Year winners 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2004 AFC Asian Cup players 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players AFC Asian Cup-winning players Japanese expatriate footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate footballers in Austria Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Expatriate footballers in Japan Expatriate footballers in Brazil Sportspeople from Paraná (state)