| Intro | Japanese footballer | ||||
| Is |
Athlete Football player Association football player |
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| From |
Brazil Japan |
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| Type | Sports | ||||
| Gender | male | ||||
| Birth | 20 July 1977, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil | ||||
| Age: | 43 years | ||||
| Stats |
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Alessandro Santos (三都主 アレサンドロ, Santosu Aresandoro, born July 20, 1977), formerly Alessandro dos Santos and often known as Alex, is a Japanese football player who was born in Brazil. He played for the Japan national team.
Career
He was born in Maringá in Paraná, and moved to Japan in 1994 at the age of sixteen. He enrolled in Meitoku Gijuku High School in Kōchi and played football for the school club. After graduating from the school, he joined the J1 League team Shimizu S-Pulse in 1997. In 1999, he received the J.League Player of the Year.
In 2001, he 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 FIFA World Cup. He was the second foreign-born person to play for Japan in the World Cup finals 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.
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. In January 2004, he left Shimizu to join the Urawa Red Diamonds.
Since Zico took over as the national team manager, Alex was 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, providing an assist for Keiji Tamada in a group stage match against his former country Brazil.
In January 2007, Alex 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.
Club statistics
| Club performance | League | Cup | League Cup | Continental | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Japan | League | Emperor’s Cup | League Cup | Asia | Total | |||||||
| 1997 | Shimizu S-Pulse | J1 League | 27 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | – | 32 | 4 | |
| 1998 | 26 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 0 | – | 36 | 12 | |||
| 1999 | 30 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | – | 35 | 11 | |||
| 2000 | 30 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 0 | – | 40 | 8 | |||
| 2001 | 30 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | – | 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 | Urawa Reds | J1 League | 27 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | – | 30 | 3 | |
| 2005 | 32 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | – | 42 | 4 | |||
| 2006 | 34 | 5 | 1 | 0 | – | – | 35 | 5 | ||||
| Austria | League | Austrian Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||||
| 2006-07 | Red Bull Salzburg | Bundesliga | 9 | 0 | – | – | – | 9 | 0 | |||
| 2007-08 | 11 | 1 | – | – | 1 | 0 | 12 | 1 | ||||
| Japan | League | Emperor’s Cup | League Cup | Asia | Total | |||||||
| 2008 | Urawa Reds | J1 League | 1 | 0 | – | – | – | 1 | 0 | |||
| 2009 | 6 | 0 | – | 4 | 0 | – | 10 | 0 | ||||
| Nagoya Grampus | 14 | 0 | 6 | 1 | – | 4 | 0 | 24 | 1 | |||
| 2010 | 25 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | – | 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 | – | – | 27 | 2 | ||
| 2014 | FC Gifu | 18 | 2 | 0 | 0 | – | – | 18 | 2 | |||
| Total | Japan | 396 | 71 | 51 | 10 | 36 | 4 | 13 | 3 | 496 | 88 | |
| Austria | 20 | 1 | – | – | 1 | 0 | 21 | 1 | ||||
| Career total | 416 | 72 | 51 | 10 | 36 | 4 | 14 | 3 | 517 | 89 | ||
National team statistics
| Japan national team | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Apps | Goals |
| 2002 | 9 | 1 |
| 2003 | 15 | 1 |
| 2004 | 22 | 2 |
| 2005 | 17 | 1 |
| 2006 | 19 | 2 |
| Total | 82 | 7 |
Appearances in Major Competitions
| 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 |
Goals for national team
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | May 2, 2002 | Kobe, Japan | Honduras | 3-3 | Drew | Friendly |
| 2. | December 7, 2003 | Saitama, Japan | Hong Kong | 1-0 | Won | East Asian Football Championship 2003 |
| 3. | February 12, 2004 | Tokyo, Japan | Iraq | 2-0 | Won | Friendly |
| 4. | May 30, 2004 | Manchester, England | Iceland | 3-2 | Won | Friendly |
| 5. | January 29, 2005 | Yokohama, Japan | Kazakhstan | 4-0 | Won | Friendly |
| 6. | August 9, 2006 | Tokyo, Japan | Trinidad and Tobago | 2-0 | Won | Friendly |
| 7. | August 9, 2006 | Tokyo, Japan | Trinidad and Tobago | 2-0 | Won | Friendly |
Honors
Individual Honors
- J.League MVP: 1999
- J1 League Best Eleven: 1999
Team Honors
- AFC Asian Cup: 2004
- J1 League: 2006, 2010
- Asian Cup Winners Cup: 1999
- Emperor’s Cup: 2001, 2005, 2006
- Japanese Super Cup: 2002, 2006
- Austrian Bundesliga: 2007
- Austrian Bundesliga Runner-up: 2008
Personal life
He is married to a Japanese woman from Shizuoka and has a son.