Alex Sandro had two good seasons before his decline. Danilo probably had one or two. If we go back even further there’s Altafini, although I’d consider him more of a Milan legend, was an important player during his short spell.
The real question would be why do always seem to pick the average ones? Other Serie A teams had Ronaldo, Adriano, Careca, Cerezo, Aldair, Cafú, Zico, Falcão, Kaká to name a few while we end up with the likes of Hernanes, Lúcio and Melo.
There’s an old article I probably won’t find again which talks about how we almost signed Pelé in the 60’s. Now imagine that. Contracts were different back then and he wasn’t allowed to leave. And I remember Santos’ management confirmed they were in talks with us regarding Neymar. Hate him all you want but a 22 year old Neymar was a force to be reckoned with.
The closest we got to a star was Diego (?) and I think that was a case of wrong team at the wrong time. But then again if I had to make a top 30 Brazilians of all time list he wouldn’t be anywhere near it. Probably not even 50.
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Forgot about Emerson! He was indeed a great player for us.