Alessandro dos Santos

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"Alex dos Santos" redirects here. For other uses, see Alex dos Santos (disambiguation).
Alex
Personal information
Full name Alessandro dos Santos
Date of birth July 20, 1977 (1977-07-20) (age 30)
Place of birth    Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position Midfielder
Club information
Current club Urawa Red Diamonds
Number 8
Youth clubs
1986-1994
1994-1997		 Gremio Maringá
Meitokugijuku H.S.
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1997-2003
2004-2006
2007
2008-present		 Shimizu S-Pulse
Urawa Red Diamonds
→Red Bull Salzburg (Loan)
Urawa Red Diamonds		 198 0(56)
093 0(11)
020 00(1)
000 00(0)   
National team2
2002-present Japan 082 00(7)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of May 16, 2008.
2 National team caps and goals correct
as of May 16, 2008.
* Appearances (Goals)

Alessandro dos Santos (三都主アレサンドロ Santosu Aresandoro?), born July 20, 1977 in Maringá, Paraná, Brazil, and often known as Alex, is a Brazilian-born football player who plays for the Japanese national team.

He arrived in Japan in 1994, became a Japanese citizen in November 2001, and played in the 2002 FIFA World Cup and 2006 FIFA World Cup. Alex currently plays for Urawa Red Diamonds of the J. League.

Alex left Brazil at age 16 to play high school soccer in Japan, and joined the J-League team Shimizu S-Pulse upon graduation in 1997. In 1999 he was named J-League Player of the Year, and in 2001, his citizenship application was approved in a very rapid eight months.

He made his first appearance for Japan on March 21, 2002 against Ukraine, and he was part of Philippe Troussier's selection for that year's World Cup finals. Alex became the second foreign-born person to play for Japan in the World Cup finals after Wagner Lopes, also born in Brazil, who was an important player in Japan's 1998 World Cup squad. Alex is the third naturalized citizen to play for Japan after Lopes and another Brazilian-born Japanese citizen, Ruy Ramos, who played in Japan's unsuccessful campaign to qualify for the 1994 finals [1].

In August 2002, Alex agreed to join English Premier League club Charlton Athletic. 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 and returned to Shimizu for the remainder of the season. [2]

In January 2004, he left Shimizu to join the Urawa Red Diamonds.

Since Zico took over as the national team manager, Alex has been a constant on the left side of the Japanese lineup, as a fullback in 4-4-2 formation or midfielder in 3-5-2 formation, and was selected to Japan's 2006 World Cup squad in May 2006.

On December 12, 2006, it was announced that Alex would be loaned out to Red Bull Salzburg at the end of January window [3].


Contents

[edit] Career statistics

Club Performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Japan League Emperor's Cup J. League Cup Asia Total
1997 Shimizu S-Pulse J. League Division 1 27 3 3 0 2 1 - 32 4
1998 26 10 5 2 5 0 - 36 12
1999 30 11 1 0 4 0 - 35 11
2000 30 4 5 4 5 0 - 40 8
2001 30 12 5 1 2 1 - 37 14
2002 29 9 3 0 2 2 - 34 11
2003 26 7 4 0 4 0 5 3 39 10
2004 Urawa Red Diamonds J. League Division 1 27 2 2 1 1 0 - 30 3
2005 32 4 5 0 5 0 - 42 4
2006 34 5 1 0 0 0 - 35 5
Austria League Austrian Cup League Cup Europe Total
2006-07 Red Bull Salzburg Bundesliga 9 0
2007-08 11 1
Japan League Emperor's Cup J. League Cup Asia Total
2008 Urawa Red Diamonds J. League Division 1
Total Japan 291 67 34 8 30 4 5 3 340 82
Austria 20 1
Career Total 311 68

[edit] Honors

[edit] Individual Honors

[edit] Team Honors

[edit] National Career Stats

[edit] Appearances in Major Competitions

Year Competition Category Appearances Goals Team Record
Start Sub
2002 2002 FIFA World Cup Senior 1 1 0 Round of 16
2003 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup Senior 3 0 0 Round 1
2004 2004 AFC Asian Cup Senior 6 0 0 Champion
2005 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup Senior 3 0 0 Round 1
2004-2005 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification Senior 9 1 0 Qualified
2006 2006 FIFA World Cup Senior 3 0 0 Round 1
2006 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification Senior 6 0 0 Qualified

[edit] Goals for national team

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. May 2, 2002 Kobe, Japan Flag of Honduras Honduras 3-3 Drew Friendly
2. December 7, 2003 Saitama, Japan Flag of Hong Kong Hong Kong 1-0 Won Friendly
3. February 12, 2004 Tokyo, Japan Flag of Iraq Iraq 2-0 Won Friendly
4. May 30, 2004 Manchester, England Flag of Iceland Iceland 3-2 Won Friendly
5. January 29, 2005 Yokohama, Japan Flag of Kazakhstan Kazakhstan 4-0 Won Friendly
6. August 9, 2006 Tokyo, Japan Flag of Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago 2-0 Won Friendly
7. August 9, 2006 Tokyo, Japan Flag of Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago 2-0 Won Friendly

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

A song was written about him, 1,2, Santos, by the Eurobeat artist Alessandra Mirka Gatti, for the Eurobeat album ULTRA'S STADIUM-I GOT THE FEVER. A very similar situation happens with the main character of the anime Goal FH: Field Hunter

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Masashi Nakayama		 J-League Player of the Year
1999		 Succeeded by
Shunsuke Nakamura
v • d • e
Japan squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup
1 Kawaguchi • 2 Akita • 3 Matsuda • 4 Morioka • 5 Inamoto • 6 Hattori • 7 H. Nakata • 8 Morishima • 9 Nishizawa • 10 Nakayama • 11 Suzuki • 12 Narazaki • 13 Yanagisawa • 14 Alex • 15 Fukunishi • 16 K. Nakata • 17 Miyamoto • 18 Ono • 19 Ogasawara • 20 Myojin • 21 Toda • 22 Ichikawa • 23 Sogahata • Coach: Troussier
 Flag of Japan
v • d • e
Japan squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup
1 Narazaki • 2 Moniwa • 3 Komano • 4 Endō • 5 Miyamoto • 6 K. Nakata • 7 H. Nakata • 8 Ogasawara • 9 Takahara • 10 Nakamura • 11 Maki • 12 Doi • 13 Yanagisawa • 14 Alex • 15 Fukunishi • 16 Oguro • 17 Inamoto • 18 Ono • 19 Tsuboi • 20 Tamada • 21 Kaji • 22 Nakazawa • 23 Kawaguchi • Coach: Zico
 Flag of Japan
v • d • e
Urawa Red Diamonds – current squad

1 Yamagishi • 2 Tsuboi • 3 Hosogai • 4 Tulio • 6 Yamada • 7 Takahara • 8 Alex • 9 Nagai • 10 Ponte • 11 Tanaka • 12 Tsutsumi • 13 Suzuki • 14 Hirakawa • 15 Escudero • 16 Soma • 17 Edmilson • 18 Koike • 19 Uchidate • 20 Horinouchi • 21 Umesaki • 22 Abe • 23 Tsuzuki • 24 Sakamoto • 25 Kondo • 26 Takasaki • 27 Nishizawa • 28 Kato • 29 Otani • 30 Okano • 31 Hashimoto • 32 Hayashi • Manager: Engels