Alessandro Santos

is a former Japanese football player. He played for the Japan national team.

Biography
Santos was born in Maringá, Brazil on July 20, 1977. He moved to Japan in 1994. After graduating from Meitoku Gijuku High School, he joined J1 League club Shimizu S-Pulse in 1997. He played as many matches as left side midfielder from first season. In 1999, the club won the 2nd place and he received the "J.League MVP". In Asia, the club won the champions 1999–00 Asian Cup Winners' Cup and the 3rd place 2000–01 Asian Cup Winners' Cup. In 2004, he joined Urawa Reds. After won the 2nd place at J1 League for 2 years in a row (2004, 2005), the club won the champions in 2006 J1 League. In January 2007, he was loaned out to Red Bull Salzburg. He went back to Urawa in January 2008. He received a serious injury in a test match and had only one appearance in this season. In July 2009, he agreed to move to Nagoya Grampus. He made 55 appearances for the club, before joining J2 League side Tochigi SC for the 2013 season. He made 25 appearances there, scoring twice. In January 2014, he joined fellow J2 League team FC Gifu.

In November 2001, Santos obtained Japanese citizenship. He made his first appearance for Japan national team on March 21, 2002 against Ukraine, and he was part of Philippe Troussier's selection for the 2002 World Cup. He was the second foreign-born person to play for Japan in the World Cup after Wagner Lopes, who played in the 1998 World Cup and also the fifth naturalized citizen to play for Japan after Daishiro Yoshimura, George Yonashiro, Ruy Ramos, and Lopes.

Since Zico took over as the national team manager, Santos was a constant on the left side of the Japanese lineup, as a side back in 4-4-2 formation or midfielder in 3-5-2 formation. At 2004 Asian Cup, he played full time in all 6 matches and Japan won the champions. He was selected to Japan's 2006 World Cup squad in May 2006, providing an assist for Keiji Tamada in a group stage match against his former country Brazil. He played 82 games and scored 7 goals for Japan until 2006.

Statistics

|-
|1997||rowspan="7"|Shimizu S-Pulse||rowspan="7"|J1 League||27||3||3||0||2||1||colspan="2"|-||32||4
|-
|1998||26||10||5||2||5||0||colspan="2"|-||36||12
|-
|1999||30||11||1||0||4||0||colspan="2"|-||35||11
|-
|2000||30||4||5||4||5||0||colspan="2"|-||40||8
|-
|2001||30||12||5||1||2||1||colspan="2"|-||37||14
|-
|2002||29||9||3||0||2||2||2||2||36||13
|-
|2003||26||7||4||0||4||0||3||1||37||8
|-
|2004||rowspan="3"|Urawa Reds||rowspan="3"|J1 League||27||2||2||1||1||0||colspan="2"|-||30||3
|-
|2005||32||4||5||0||5||0||colspan="2"|-||42||4
|-
|2006||34||5||1||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||35||5

|-
|2006/07||rowspan=2|Red Bull Salzburg||rowspan="2"|Bundesliga||9||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||9||0
|-
|2007/08||11||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||1||0||12||1

|-
|2008||rowspan="2"|Urawa Reds||rowspan="2"|J1 League||1||0||0||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||1||0
|-
|2009||6||0||0||0||4||0||colspan="2"|-||10||0
|-
|2009||rowspan="4"|Nagoya Grampus||rowspan="4"|J1 League||14||0||6||1||0||0||4||0||24||1
|-
|2010||25||0||3||1||1||0||colspan="2"|-||29||1
|-
|2011||11||0||4||0||1||0||3||0||19||0
|-
|2012||5||0||2||0||0||0||1||0||8||0
|-
|2013||Tochigi SC||J2 League||25||2||2||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||27||2
|-
|2014||FC Gifu||J2 League||18||2||0||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||18||2
396||71||51||10||36||4||13||3||496||88
20||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||1||0||21||1
416||72||51||10||36||4||14||3||517||89
|}

|-
|2002||9||1
|-
|2003||15||1
|-
|2004||22||2
|-
|2005||17||1
|-
|2006||19||2
|-
!Total||82||7
|}

References

Other websites

1977 births
Living people
Brazilian-Japanese footballers
Japan international footballers
J1 League players
J2 League players
Shimizu S-Pulse players
Urawa Red Diamonds players
Nagoya Grampus players
Tochigi SC players
FC Gifu players
2002 FIFA World Cup players
2006 FIFA World Cup players
2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players
2005 FIFA Confederations Cup players