Ranking all of the 21 Brazilians to play for Real Madrid since 2000

Real Madrid have benefitted from some wonderful Brazilian players over the years, with some of the best players of the modern era strutting their stuff at the Santiago Bernabeu. 

But, among the world-leading stars, there’s been some failures to remind people that not everybody from Brazil can be good at football.

Here’s how we’ve ranked the 21 Brazilians to have signed for the club since the start of the century. 

Emerson followed Fabio Capello to Madrid in 2006 after Juventus were relegated from Serie A, but the midfielder had a difficult time at the Bernabeu and was jeered by his own fans.

“Here they have no respect. This has never happened to me before,” Emerson told El Pais. “Maybe it’s because I have just arrived and the fans don’t know me.”

He left for AC Milan after just one season. Neither party missed the other.

Madrid thought they had signed the next Cafu when they bought Cicinho in 2006, but any such predictions were wide of the mark.

The right-back made just 32 appearances for the club, and in 2016 he revealed he had been battling alcoholism during his career.

“I’m a guy who can’t sit and have one or two glasses,” Cicinho told ESPN Brasil. “I have to drink until I fall over. They said to me: ‘if you keep going with this life, you will die’.”

Which is a real shame, because he looked like some player…

There are more birthdays today as former @SaoPauloFC_eng

player Cicinho turns 39!

The full-back scored 4⃣ goals as the club won the #Libertadores title back in 2005, including this cracker of a strike!pic.twitter.com/MJDBeV9Vyd

— CONMEBOL Libertadores (@TheLibertadores) June 24, 2019

Felipe joined the Castilla back in the summer of 2014 but suffered two serious knee injuries and nearly quit football altogether.