10 superstars who could have played for Brazil but didn’t

#7 Jorginho (Italy)

Jorginho is a regular for Italy under Roberto Mancini

Chelsea is managed by the Italian Maurizio Sarri but the two Italians in his squad are both naturalised players. The first player, Emerson Palmieri, is a fringe player but the second player, Jorginho, is a vital cog in his system.

Jorginho was born in Imbituba in Brazil but he moved to Italy at the age of 15 and joined the Academy of Hellas Verona. Although he was born in Brazil, he is of Italian descent through his paternal great-great-grandparent. He earned Italian citizenship through his grandfather who held an Italian passport despite being a Brazilian.

In 2012, he was called up to the Italy U-21 team for the first time and in 2014, he expressed his desire to represent Italy at the international level rather than Brazil. In March 2016, he received his first call-up to the senior team under Antonio Conte for friendlies but was excluded from the squad for Euro 2016.

Conte’s successor, Gian Piero Ventura, didn’t call-up Jorginho to the squad initially despite his impressive form for Napoli and there were rumours that Tite was considering Jorginho’s inclusion in the Brazil squad as the player didn’t represent Italy in any competitive game.

However, Jorginho denied that he wanted to play for Brazil and went on to play for Italy in a competitive game. He is now a regular for Italy under Roberto Mancini and earned ten of his thirteen international caps in 2018.