Payet, Bolasie and Depay — why are so many random European players heading to Brazil?

A recent segment on a sports bulletin on Brazilian television neatly captured the excitement — and bafflement — caused by an influx of European players.

It started with a montage of goals scored by Memphis Depay, signed by Corinthians last week in a move that has sent large sections of the Sao Paulo club’s fanbase into delirium. Clips of supporters mimicking the Dutch forward’s trademark fingers-in-ears goal celebration were only a small sample of what can be expected in the months ahead.

Then came images of other players: Denmark international Martin Braithwaite; Maxime Dominguez, a midfielder from Switzerland; French 20-year-old Mohamed El Arouch; the former Norwich City and Newcastle United full-back Jamal Lewis.

All have signed for clubs in Brazil since the end of the 2023-24 European season. The TV segment playfully labelled the rundown a “Tour of Random Gringos”.

This is not even the full extent of it, however. The complete version of the list would also include former France playmaker Dimitri Payet, who has been playing for Vasco da Gama since August 2023, and Tobias Figueiredo, once a Portugal player at youth level and now at Criciuma on loan from Fortaleza. Spaniard Hector Hernandez is a possible strike partner for Depay at Corinthians. There is also Yannick Bolasie, also at Criciuma. He may have played 50 times for DR Congo, but he was born in France and raised in England, making him plenty European enough to count as an import from what Brazilians call the Old Continent.

An historic move for @Jamal_lewis1 🇧🇷🔥

Congratulations to our client Jamal Lewis who has completed a loan move to Brazilian giants @SaoPauloFC ✍️ #SPFC #NUFC pic.twitter.com/DakkLuKHb8

— PLG (@PLG_agency) September 3, 2024

It is an eye-catching trend whichever way you cut it. There have been Europeans in Brazil before — Serbian playmaker Dejan Petkovic is considered a legend at Flamengo and Clarence Seedorf had a memorable late-career spell at Botafogo — but never before have there been so many at once in the modern era. With numbers likely to swell further, it seems an appropriate time to ask the obvious question: what the heck is going on?

For one thing, the laws governing the use of players from outside Brazil have been slackening. Two years ago, clubs could use a maximum of five foreigners in a matchday squad. That was changed to seven in 2023. In March, the clubs in the top division of the Campeonato Brasileiro voted unanimously to raise the cap again, up to nine.

The impact of those alterations has been felt most keenly within South America. Brazil has hoovered up talent from Argentina, Uruguay and its other neighbours for years; now they can really cut loose. Current league leaders Botafogo have six non-Brazilian South Americans in their ranks, as do second-placed Palmeiras. Gremio, the traditional home of many such ‘hermanos’, have nine. The extra leeway, though, has also brought other markets into the equation.

It helps that Brazilian football has, broadly speaking, become more accommodating of outside voices over the last decade. Portuguese coaches Jorge Jesus and Abel Ferreira have enjoyed enormous success, beating a path that many others have followed. The local football federation wanted to break with tradition and appoint Carlo Ancelotti as coach of the men’s national team. Funding from abroad has led to modernisation behind the scenes. It makes sense that these patterns would be replicated on the pitch, too.

It is tempting to see the wave of Europeans as a sign that the Brazilian game is thriving. From afar, one might assume Brazilian clubs have acquired the financial clout to compete for players they would not previously have been able to sign, or the kinds of international scouting networks that would have been anathema to past generations. Maybe recent structural changes — the 2021 law that allowed clubs to become public companies (SAFs), increasing foreign investment, talk of a breakaway league — have moved the Campeonato Brasileiro up in the world.

This, though, would be an incredibly rosy-eyed reading. It would be one thing if these signings were concentrated among clubs who have their act together, but there is no real correlation. Gremio, who signed Braithwaite to replace the departed Luis Suarez in July, are on a solid financial footing, for example, but Corinthians have debts of more than two billion Reais (£278million, $368 million). If Depay cannot help them claw themselves out of the relegation zone in the remaining 12 matches of the season, they face financial ruin.

For Rodrigo Capelo, Brazil’s foremost expert on football finances, the recent spate of European arrivals is nothing to be excited about.

“These recent signings seem much more like a fad than anything strategic or based on structural change in Brazilian football,” he tells The Athletic. “Opportunities have arisen and club owners sensed they would go down well with fans. In the past, they only signed Brazilians or South Americans. Now they also have the chance to sign European players. They look good in photos.”

The comparison between Seedorf and Depay is interesting. Seedorf was 36 and some way past his prime when he joined Botafogo in 2012. Depay is 30 and still a mainstay of the Dutch national team. It would be a stretch to call it a coup, given that none of Europe’s top teams appeared to want him this summer, but it doesn’t feel like nothing.

Depay was keen to paint himself as a kind of envoy from the future at his first Corinthians press conference. “We always come to take the Brazilian talents to Europe because they have something special,” he said. “This league needs a light from the other side. It is time to show its potential. It will happen in the next few years.”

Capelo is not convinced. “It would be positive if this was a true sign that Brazilian football was getting stronger, more profitable, more responsible, more sustainable,” he says. “If that was the truth, it would be cool to pass that message on to the wider world by signing players who were still in demand in the European market, but it’s not the case.

“None of the players here today could find clubs in Europe. It’s interesting that they saw Brazil as an alternative but it doesn’t change our image on the global scene.”

For Capelo, the Seedorf example also serves as a cautionary tale. For all the excitement about that signing, for all that Seedorf proved to be an inspiration on the pitch, the move also symbolised the kind of financial irresponsibility that has so often defined the Brazilian game. When the sponsorship deals and a round of TV bonuses that had funded Seedorf’s arrival dried up, Botafogo were left on the brink of collapse. A year after the Dutchman retired, they were relegated to Serie B.

A decade on, plenty has changed. The rise of SAFs, including Botafogo, Cruzeiro, Fortaleza and Bahia, has been widely credited with bringing in fresh ideas and much-needed investment. The ownership model also tends to shape transfer policy: without presidential elections every few years, there is less temptation for these clubs to go for splashy, big-name signings that might previously have swayed fans in the short term.

Botafogo, for instance, spent heavily this summer, but on players who might reasonably be expected to increase in value. “We spent €20million on Luiz Henrique (from Real Betis), which is no big deal in Europe but was a record fee in Brazil,” John Textor, the owner of the club’s SAF, tells The Athletic. “We then broke it again for Thiago Almada (from Atlanta United). But we think these are investments and we have also invested money in our facilities. When (former Manchester United defender) Alex Telles joined, he told me that our training ground is the best of any club he’s played for.”

These advances have not been universal, however. Capelo, for one, still sees lingering similarities with the Seedorf era. He points to the recent boom in the Brazilian gambling industry, which has brought money into the game but may not be sustainable. “Certain practices still resemble those of the past,” he says.” A lot of clubs are spending money they don’t have.”

You can understand the appeal to the players. Depay is rumoured to be earning around £96,000 ($127,000) a week at Corinthians — not top European wages but hardly to be sniffed at. He will probably be one of the best players in the league. Like Telles, he has been impressed by the facilities at his new club. “The structure here is similar (to that at top European clubs), maybe even better in some respects,” Depay said at his unveiling.

There are also intangibles. The lifestyle available to rich footballers in Brazil will be markedly different to that they might experience in Saudi Arabia, say. There is also the allure of playing in what Depay called “the Mecca of football”, plus the undeniable feeling of adventure to it all.

It is much less clear whether deals like this augur anything good for the league. Bolasie is fast becoming a cult hero for Criciuma but it would be no great surprise if some of the other signings go the same way as Jese and Hugo Mallo, two Spaniards who pitched up last year and made minimal impact. And while not all of the European signings represent huge financial gambles, there does still seem to be an appetite for the outlandish: UEFA Champions League winners Mario Balotelli and Sergio Ramos have been linked with money-spinning moves in the last couple of months.

As for Depay, his contract includes an escape clause if Corinthians are relegated. The deal has largely been funded by one of the club’s sponsors, a betting company.

“These moves aren’t happening because Brazilian football became richer,” says Capelo, “but because there’s still a lot of irresponsibility.”

(Top photo: Memphis Depay training in Sao Paulo; by Nelson Almeida/AFP via Getty Images)