Home > Alessandro dos Santos

He moved to Japan in his teenage years, playing for his high school team before first playing for the J-League team Shimizu S-Pulse in 1997. In 1999 he was named J-League Player of the Year, and his citizenship application was approved in a very rapid eight months in 2001.

Alex became the first foreign-born person to play for Japan in the World Cup finals, although Japan's large resident Brazilian population had previously supplied Ruy Ramos and Wagner Lopes in Japan's unsuccessful campaigns to qualify for the 1994 and 1998 finals, respectively.

1 Teams

• Shimizu S-Pulse (1997 - 2003)
• Urawa Red Diamonds (2004 - active)

• Japan national football team (2002 - active)
  • Debut against UkraineThe Ukraine national football team is the national team of Ukraine and is controlled by the Football Federation of Ukraine. After the split of Soviet Union, they played their first match against Hungary on April 29, 1992. Before that, Ukrainian players pl
  • Appearances: 24 (end of 2003)
  • World Cup appearances: 2002
  • Goals: 2 (end of 2003)

2 Honors

With the Japanese national team:

• AFCThe Asian Football Confederation AFC represents international football teams in Asia. It also operates the Asian Champions League tournament, an annual club competition involving Champions and cup winners from the fourteen strongest Asian football federat Asian CupThe AFC Asian Cup formerly known as the Asian Nations Cup is the main national football competition of the AFC nations. It has been held every four years since 1956. A qualifying tournament is held to determine the participating nations, currently this in
  • Appearance 2004
  • Winner 2004

With the Shimizu S-Pulse:

• Asian Cup Winners Cup: 1999
• Emperor's Cup: 2002
• Xerox Super Cup: 2002
• J. LeagueLeague (in Japanese: "J", Officially "") is the top professional football league in Japan. League was created in 1992, though play did not begin until the following year, and initially consisted of 10 teams, taken from the original Japanese Soccer League: 1999-2nd

With the Urawa Red Diamonds:

• J. LeagueLeague (in Japanese: "J", Officially "") is the top professional football league in Japan. League was created in 1992, though play did not begin until the following year, and initially consisted of 10 teams, taken from the original Japanese Soccer League: 2004-2nd

Personal honors:

• J. League Awards:
  • MVP: 1999
  • Best Eleven: 1999