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Alessandro dos Santos
Personal information
Full name	Alessandro dos Santos
Date of birth	July 20, 1977 (age 29)
Place of birth	Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
Height	178 cm
Nickname	Alex
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Red Bull Salzburg
Youth clubs
1986-1994 1994-1997	Gremio Maringá Meitokugijuku H.S.
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1997-2003 2004-2006 2007-	Shimizu S-Pulse Urawa Red Diamonds Red Bull Salzburg	198 (56) 93 (11)
National team2
2002-	Japan	75 (5)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of June 22, 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Alessandro dos Santos (三都主アレサンドロ, Santosu Aresandoro^?), born July 20, 1977 in Maringá, Paraná, Brazil, and often known as Alex, is a Brazilian-born football player who plays for the Japanese national team.

He arrived in Japan in 1994, became a Japanese citizen in November 2001, and played in the 2002 FIFA World Cup and 2006 FIFA World Cup. Alex currently plays for the Urawa Red Diamonds of the J-League.

Alex left Brazil at age 16 to play high school soccer in Japan, and joined the J-League team Shimizu S-Pulse upon graduation in 1997. In 1999 he was named J-League Player of the Year, and in 2001, his citizenship application was approved in a very rapid eight months.

He made his first appearance for Japan on March 21, 2002 against Ukraine, and he was part of Philippe Troussier's selection for that year's World Cup finals. Alex became the second foreign-born person to play for Japan in the World Cup finals after Wagner Lopes, also born in Brazil, who was an important player in Japan's 1998 World Cup squad. Alex is the third naturalized citizen to play for Japan after Lopes and another Brazilian-born Japanese citizen, Ruy Ramos, who played in Japan's unsuccessful campaign to qualify for the 1994 finals [1].

In August 2002, Alex agreed to join English Premier League club Charlton Athletic. But he was denied a work permit by the Home Office because he had not made the minimum number of national team appearances required for players from outside the European Union and returned to Shimizu for the remainder of the season. [2]

In January 2004, he left Shimizu to join the Urawa Red Diamonds.

Since Zico took over as the national team manager, Alex has been a constant on the left side of the Japanese lineup, as a fullback in 4-4-2 formation or midfielder in 3-5-2 formation, and was selected to Japan's 2006 World Cup squad in May 2006.

On December 12, 2006, it was announced that Alex would be loaned out to Red Bull Salzburg at the end of January window [3].

Contents 1 Honors 1.1 Individual Honors 1.2 Team Honors 2 National Career Stats 2.1 Appearances in Major Competitions 3 Trivia 4 External links

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

• Asian Cup champions: 2004
• J. League Champions: 2006
• Asian Cup Winners Cup Champions: 1999
• Emperor's Cup Champions: 2002, 2005, 2006
• Japanese Super Cup Champions: 2002, 2006

Year	Competition	Category	Appearances		Goals	Team Record
			Start	Sub
2002	2002 FIFA World Cup	Senior	1	1	0	Round of 16
2003	2003 FIFA Confederations Cup	Senior	3	0	0	Round 1
2004	2004 AFC Asian Cup	Senior	6	0	0	Champion
2005	2005 FIFA Confederations Cup	Senior	3	0	0	Round 1
2004-2005	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification	Senior	9	1	0	Qualified
2006	2006 FIFA World Cup	Senior	3	0	0	Round 1
2006	2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification	Senior	6	0	0	Qualified

A song was written about him, 1,2, Santos, by the Eurobeat artist Alessandra Mirka Gatti, for the Eurobeat album ULTRA'S STADIUM-I GOT THE FEVER. A very similar situation happens with the main character of the Anime "Goal FH: Field Hunter"

• Santos Alessandro Official Website
• National Football Teams
• No divided loyalties for Alex, FIFAworldcup.com, June 22, 2005

Preceded by Masashi Nakayama

J-League Player of the Year 1999

Succeeded by Shunsuke Nakamura

FC Red Bull Salzburg - Current Squad
1 Ochs | 2 Bodnár | 3 Dudić | 4 Linke | 5 Carboni | 6 Kovač | 7 Zickler | 8 Alessandro Santos | 9 Lokvenc | 11 Ježek | 13 Tiffert | 15 Knavs | 16 Piták | 17 Miyamoto | 18 Meyer | 19 Vonlanthen | 20 Steinhöfer | 21 Janko | 22 Arzberger | 24 Orosz | 27 Janočko | 28 Aufhauser | 30 Özcan | 31 Vargas | 33 Winklhofer | Joint Coaches: Matthäus & Trapattoni

	Japan squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup
1 Kawaguchi | 2 Akita | 3 Matsuda | 4 Morioka | 5 Inamoto | 6 Hattori | 7 H. Nakata | 8 Morishima | 9 Nishizawa | 10 Nakayama | 11 Suzuki | 12 Narazaki | 13 Yanagisawa | 14 Santos | 15 Fukunishi | 16 K. Nakata | 17 Miyamoto | 18 Ono | 19 Ogasawara | 20 Myojin | 21 Toda | 22 Ichikawa | 23 Sogahata | Coach: Troussier

	Japan squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup
1 Narazaki | 2 Moniwa | 3 Komano | 4 Endo | 5 Miyamoto | 6 K. Nakata | 7 H. Nakata | 8 Ogasawara | 9 Takahara | 10 Nakamura | 11 Maki | 12 Doi | 13 Yanagisawa | 14 Santos | 15 Fukunishi | 16 Oguro | 17 Inamoto | 18 Ono | 19 Tsuboi | 20 Tamada | 21 Kaji | 22 Nakazawa | 23 Kawaguchi | Coach: Zico