Brazil has always been home to some incredible footballing talent – and its top flight these days features a weird and wonderful mix of up-and-coming talent and forgotten stars from years gone by.

We couldn’t help but notice Clarence Seedorf becoming the manager of Corinthians last week, meaning he’s now Jesse Lingard’s boss. You couldn’t make it up.

But who else is keeping their career going in Brazil? You know Neymar’s back at Santos, for example, and probably that Philippe Coutinho’s his teammate these days, but here are some other familiar faces currently plying their trade in Brazil, that you either didn’t realise were or you’d forgotten about altogether.

There was a time when Atletico Madrid had so much faith in Saul that they gave him a nine-year contract – and that was way before Chelsea made a habit of stuff like that.

Originally a Real Madrid academy player, Saul moved to Atleti’s youth ranks and broke through to become a key first-team player for Diego Simeone’s side.

But his importance there began to wane and there were loan spells at Chelsea and Sevilla before he was released from his mega contract a year ahead of schedule.

Saul made the move to Flamengo in July 2025 to try and get back on track in Brazil. He’s won the Copa Libertadores and Serie A there, so it’s not been too bad a swansong, but injuries have limited his individual success.

Something of a flat-track bully in the Europa League with Tottenham during the 2020-21 season, Vinicius never did well enough in the Premier League to earn a permanent move to Spurs from Benfica.

But he got a second chance in England with Fulham between 2022 and 2025, interrupted briefly by a loan spell at Galatasaray.

The Brazilian striker headed home after Fulham released him, joining Gremio to earn what’s actually his first stint playing top-flight Brazilian football. He’s scored a respectable 22 goals from 43 Serie A games so far.

Still going strong at 40, Hulk will be able to look back on a wild ride when he retires, having played in Brazil, Japan, Portugal, Russia and China in his career – as well as 49 times for his country.

But retirement is still a topic for the future in Hulk’s case. He joined Fluminense in May and is under contract until the end of next year.

It followed a five-year spell with Atletico Mineiro, which marked his return to Brazil after 15 years.

There’s a name you’ve not heard for a while.

If you thought Hulk’s career was on the random side, check out Braithwaite’s CV. Who else has played for Middlesbrough and Barcelona along with spells in Denmark and France?

The striker, now 35, joined Gremio in 2024 after leaving Espanyol. His task? To become a worthy replacement for his old Barca teammate, Luis Suarez.

Braithwaite has scored 27 goals for Gremio so far. Two more and he’ll match Suarez’s tally for the club, but he’ll have taken a lot longer to get there.

European football aficionados became enamoured with Bernard during his five-year spell with Shakhtar Donetsk.

In the end, it was Everton who took the plunge and offered him his next challenge in 2018. Only five Premier League goals from 73 games followed.

He’s scored four goals in the league this year.

Next in the category of former Premier League players with a passable English name, Fred rekindled his connection with former Shakhtar teammate Bernard by joining Atletico Mineiro in the summer.

The midfielder had spent three years with Fenerbahce after leaving Manchester United, but is now back at the club he spent six years with in his childhood.

In his prime, Ziyech was brilliant at Ajax. Less so at Chelsea, but no disgrace there either.

He’s since had short spells with Galatasaray in Turkey, Al-Duhail in Qatar and Wydad in Morocco.

But at the age of 33, Ziyech opted for a purists’ move by joining Botafogo in September.

Brazilian media have been praiseworthy of Ziyech’s early performances for his new club.

Captain of the side Ziyech has recently joined is Telles, who also left the Middle East – Saudi Arabia in his case – to go there.

As a native Brazilian, it was a slightly more orthodox move in his case. The left-back joined Botafogo in September 2024 and was scoring in the Copa Libertadores final for the winning side a few months later.

Telles, formerly of Porto and Man Utd, extended his contract with Botafogo in the summer and should be staying there until 2028.

Former Tottenham winger Moura made a homecoming to Sao Paulo in 2023 after his contract expired in north London.

He was only supposed to stay there for a few months, but soon earned a new deal which is still valid until the end of this year.

Moura’s second spell with Sao Paulo has included 25 goals from 109 games.

Cedric had almost a decade as a Premier League player with his spells at Southampton, Arsenal and Fulham. But he was very much a background figure by the end of that time.

He was released by Arsenal in the summer of 2024 and had to wait until January 2025 to find his next club: Sao Paulo.

Like Moura before him, he earned a longer deal than his initial short-term one. Five more appearances and he’ll have played more games for Sao Paulo than for Arsenal.

One of the best left-backs in Serie A (the Italian version) in his prime with Juventus, Sandro enjoyed 13 years in Europe, first with Porto before his move to Turin in 2015.

An 18-month deal with Flamengo – and a wide array of trophies – followed for Sandro after his Juventus exit. His standards were still deemed high enough for him to make Brazil’s squad for the 2026 World Cup.

Lingard isn’t the only former Man Utd player Seedorf is now managing for Corinthians. Memphis is still there too, despite doubts over his future in the summer.

He accused Corinthians of disobeying an agreement to extend his contract, but the tension eventually cooled and his deal was renewed after all.

The Netherlands’ all-time top scorer originally joined Corinthians in 2024 after his time with Atletico Madrid ended.

Successful over two spells with Lazio, but not quite to the same degree with West Ham (and Porto on loan) in between, Anderson both arrived in and departed Europe via the Rome-based club.

In 2024, he left Lazio for a second time to join Palmeiras, where he’s still playing now at the age of 33. The winger has scored 10 goals from 116 games for his current club, where he’s under contract for another year.

Definitely more ‘forgotten’ than ‘baller’, but an unusual career path worth a mention here.

Ex-West Ham centre-back Balbuena moved to Dynamo Moscow in 2021, spending part of his time there on loan in Brazil with Corinthians.

A couple of years after that loan, the Paraguay international signed for Gremio in 2025 as a free agent. He went to the World Cup the following summer.

READ MORE: 8 forgotten ballers you had no idea are now playing in Argentina

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