The allure of the Brazilian team, with their iconic yellow shirts and samba football, remains powerful.
This Saturday evening, 90,000 fans will enter Wembley Stadium to see how England can measure up to the current Selecao stars.
But while the five-time world champions indeed maintain their global appeal, more and more Brazilian players past and present are making headlines for the wrong reasons.
In recent days, Robinho was sentenced to nine years in prison for gang rape, while Dani Alves faces four and a half years behind bars for raping a woman in a nightclub toilet.
They are just the latest footballers from the South American country to be embroiled in scandals.
Former Brazil international Robinho will serve a nine-year prison sentence for his role in the 2013 gang rape of a woman in an Italian nightclub
Former Barcelona defender Dani Alves has been sentenced to four years and six months in prison after being found guilty of rape – a sentence he plans to appeal
Your browser does not support iframes.
ROBINHO
Starting with the disgraced former Manchester City and Real Madrid striker, 40, who was told by judges on Wednesday to serve a nine-year prison sentence in Brazil for his part in a 2013 group sexual assault.
Robinho, who played for AC Milan at the time, was one of six men found guilty of the gang rape of a 22-year-old Albanian woman in a nightclub in 2017.
In January 2022, the Supreme Court in Rome rejected his final appeal against the conviction.
Italian authorities had requested that Robinho be extradited from Brazil to serve his sentence. Although that will not happen, judges in Brasilia ruled that he would be imprisoned in Brazil instead.
Robinho, who has made 100 appearances for the national team, has insisted he is innocent and plans to appeal the decision.
DANI ALVES
That verdict came on the same day that ex-Brazilian defender Dani Alves was released on bail of one million euros after appealing against his four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for rape.
Alves, 40, one of the most decorated footballers of all time, was found guilty last month of raping a woman in the bathroom of a Barcelona nightclub in the early hours of December 31, 2022.
He has been held in Barcelona’s Brians 2 prison since January 2023, but can now leave on bail as he awaits his final sentence.
Alves was sentenced last month to four and a half years in prison after a three-day trial
Dani Alves’ ex Joana Sanz (left) revealed she filed for divorce last year after the allegations against Alves came to light
Prosecutors had pushed for Alves to receive a nine-year prison sentence, with the player always maintaining his innocence and saying the sexual encounter was consensual.
His wife, model Joana Sanz, filed for divorce after his arrest.
In the eight years he played for Barcelona, Alves won six LaLiga titles and three Champions League titles. He played 126 times for his country.
ANTONY
Manchester United winger Antony may have scored in Sunday’s dramatic FA Cup win over Liverpool but he is missing from Brazil’s latest squad.
He was removed from the squad chosen for Brazil’s World Cup qualifiers against Bolivia and Peru in September following allegations of domestic violence against ex-girlfriend Gabriela Cavallin.
The 24-year-old has not been picked since, with police investigations into the allegations still ongoing in both Manchester and Sao Paulo.
The police investigation into allegations of domestic violence against Manchester United and Brazilian winger Antony remains ongoing
Antony’s ex-girlfriend Gabriela Cavallin claimed that Antony assaulted her four times
The player denies the allegations but voluntarily attended an interview with Greater Manchester Police last September.
Cavallin claims Antony attacked her at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Manchester on January 15 last year, damaging one of her breast implants.
She also claims that in June Antony cut her finger to the bone when he threw a glass at her.
RONALDINHO
The man whose free-kick knocked England out of the 2002 World Cup was involved in a fake passport scandal after finishing his playing career in 2015.
In 2020, Ronaldinho – who enjoyed a glittering career with Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona and AC Milan – was arrested along with his brother Roberto de Assis as they entered Paraguay for a promotional tour.
The pair were found to have forged Paraguayan passports and IDs, although prosecutors believed Ronaldinho had no idea the documents were fake.
Brazilian legend Ronaldinho was arrested in Paraguay after using false documentation
Ronaldinho and his brother used fake passports and IDs to gain entry to the country in 2020
While in prison, Ronaldinho played in a prison futsal tournament, with his team winning 11–2 in the final, with the former World Cup winner scoring five goals and setting up the other six.
After 32 days in the high-security Asuncion prison – where Ronaldinho spent his 40th birthday – he was transferred under house arrest to a $380-a-night luxury hotel, which otherwise sat empty amid Covid quarantines.
News reports in South America claimed that despite the restrictions, Ronaldinho often welcomed guests and spent many evenings organizing karaoke parties.
The brothers were fined $200,000 as part of a settlement and eventually returned to Brazil.
ADRIANO
Striker Adriano, who made 48 appearances for the national team between 2000 and 2010, was accused of drug trafficking while his playing career was still ongoing.
In 2010, prosecutors alleged that Adriano bought a motorcycle and gave it to a known drug dealer in the Rio de Janeiro favela where he grew up.
Adriano, who celebrated a goal for Brazil in 2006, was accused of drug trafficking
The bike was used for drug trafficking by a powerful criminal gang, it was claimed at the time, with Adriano facing a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.
But in 2014, Judge Maria Tereza Donatti dismissed the case because there was not enough evidence to support the allegations.
EDMUNDO
The attacker nicknamed ‘The Animal’ was certainly a controversial character.
In 1999, Edmundo was threatened with prosecution by animal welfare groups after he hired an entire circus to perform in his backyard for his son’s first birthday.
At the party he was pictured feeding beer and whiskey to an Adidas tracksuit-wearing chimpanzee named Pedrinho.
Edmundo shares his beer with chimpanzee Pedrinho during his son’s first birthday party
That same year, while playing for Italian club Fiorentina, Edmundo escaped a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for driving drunk and causing the deaths of three people when his Jeep Cherokee crashed into a Fiat during the Rio Carnival.
He was convicted of ‘culpable homicide’, but on appeal his sentence was drastically reduced to a seven-day suspended sentence.
HULK
The former Brazil striker certainly made headlines when it was revealed he had married his former wife’s niece.
The 37-year-old, who plays for Atletico Mineiro in his home country, was previously married to Iran Angelo for 12 years. They had two sons together, Ian and Tiago, and a daughter, Alice.
Former Brazil striker Hulk stunned the world when he announced he was marrying his ex-wife’s niece Camila Angelo
Hulk’s ex-wife Iran (left) and Iran’s niece (right) who married the Brazilian footballer in 2020
But Hulk – full name Givanlido Vieira de Sousa – announced five months after their divorce in 2019 that he was marrying Camila Angelo, his ex-wife’s niece.
A spokesman for the player said at the time: ‘Hulk called Camila’s parents and brother and told the truth. It was Hulk himself who made the information public because he had nothing to hide.”
The couple welcomed a daughter, Zaya, in April 2022 and announced in December that a boy is on the way.
