The processes of football globalization in recent decades have accelerated so much that now few people are surprised by the presence of players with, for example, Brazilian roots in the Italian national team. A striking example is Jorginho, who is called by many experts the most worthy contender for the Golden Ball-2021, and who plays for the Squadru Azzurra, although he was born and lived in Brazil until the age of 15.
Will these players become stars of their native national team or will they play for the other teams? What are your predictions about their future careers? You may start supporting them right now by making bets on their teams with the best online bookmaker for legal sports betting called 22Bet.
Emanuel Vignato
Emanuel Vignato was born in the Italian commune of Negrar Valpolicella in August 2000 in a family of immigrants from Brazil. For this reason, when the young footballer began to achieve his first serious successes on the field, he had a choice – which national team to play for: his native Brazil, or Italy, which is actually the first home for Vignato himself.
As a result, in 2016, Emanuel was called up to the Brazil U-17 national team, where he even flew to the training camp, but did not play official matches. Soon, Italy realized that they could lose a potentially promising footballer, and made every effort to convince Vignato to play for the Europeans. As a result, since that time, Emanuel was regularly called up to the youth teams of Italy, and now he has already 3 fights and 1 goal scored for the youth team of Squadra Azzurra.
Note that at the club level, Vignato plays for Bologna. He is a player of the rotation of the first team, and at his age gets a lot of playing practice in general. Emanuel’s contract with the “red-blues” is valid until the summer of 2024, and its estimated value on Transfermarkt is 6 million euros.
Marcos Paulo
This winger was born and raised in the municipality of São Gonçalo, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Marcos Paulo began to take his first steps in football at the Fluminense Academy, where over time he began to be considered one of its main “pearls”. At some stage, the Brazilian club failed to agree with Marcos on the extension of the contract, and the European messengers took advantage of this – in particular, Atletico Madrid, which signed a 5-year contract with Paulo this summer.
At the moment, Marcos Paulo on loan from Atlético plays for the Portuguese “Famalican”, where in general he has a stable playing practice. Obviously, the “mattress” suppose that in a year or two the winger will be able to return to their ranks in order to try to become one of the important players in the first team. In the meantime, Transfermarkt estimates Marcos Paulo at 9 million euros.
It is noteworthy that since 2018, Marcos Paulo began to be attracted to the games of the Portuguese youth teams. Local officials deftly tracked down the roots of the young talent and offered him citizenship. In particular, for the Portuguese U-18 national team, the winger scored 3 goals in 3 matches, although the last time he played on the international arena back in 2019. The latter factor gives the Brazilians a chance to try to return the talented winger to their banners, but the Portuguese will certainly not miss the opportunity to convince Paulo to stay with their passport, which in his future career, at least in Europe, gives a lot of preferences.
