5 Brazilians who played for Manchester United

#2 Anderson

Anderson scored in the 2008 Champions League final penalty shoot-out

A box-to-box midfielder noted for his power and vision, Anderson was signed by United for a fee of around £20m from Porto in the summer of 2007. Just 19 at the time, Anderson was expected to be one for the future, as United’s squad was unbelievably strong at that point, so it came as a bit of a surprise when the Brazilian featured in 24 Premier League games in his first season.

His highest point was undoubtedly scoring in the penalty shoot-out in the Champions League final that season – United went on to defeat Chelsea when Nicolas Anelka missed his spot-kick, meaning Anderson won both the Premier League title and the Champions League in his first season at Old Trafford.

Unfortunately, that was about as good as it got for the Brazilian midfielder. Despite winning a further three Premier League titles during his spell at United – a spell that lasted 7 and a half years – he never truly established himself as a first-teamer at Old Trafford due to spells of bad form and injuries.

Once Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 his time was largely up, as he fell out of favour with both David Moyes and Louis van Gaal and moved to Brazilian side Internacional midway through 2014/15.