Samba Gold 2009: The Top 30 Brazilian Footballers in Europe

Have you heard of the Samba Gold award? It’s a (colourful, see picture) trophy given out by sambafoot.com, a French website devoted to Brazilian football. They put together a shortlist of the 30 best Brazilians currently playing their football in Europe, and then voted on it.

Luis Fabiano of Sevilla (aka o’fabuloso) is the Samba Gold 2009 winner, as he came out top with nearly 21% of the vote. Inter keeper Julio César came second, with Samba Gold 2008 winner Kaka coming in third. The full top 30 is below, begging two inevitable questions: 1. Who voted for Lucas? and 2. Were they joking?

1. Luis Fabiano (FC Sevilla) – 20.91%
2. Julio César (Inter Milan) – 17.58%
3. Kaka (Real Madrid) – 16.35%
4. Pato (AC Milan) – 4.99%
5. Grafite (Wolfsburg) – 4.86%
6. Daniel Alves (FC Barcelona) – 4.74%
7. Alex (Spartak Moscow) – 4.04%
8. Maicon (Inter Milan) – 3.43%
9. Naldo (Werder) – 3.14%
10. Fernandinho (Donetsk) – 2.76%
11. Diego (Juventus) – 2.24%
12. Ronaldinho (AC Milan) – 2.07%
13. Lucio (Inter Milan) – 1.69%
14. Andre Santos (Fenerbahce) – 1.60%
15. Robinho (Manchester City) – 1.39%
16. Elano (Galatasaray) – 1.39%
17. Ramires (Benfica) – 1.08%
18. Nenê (Monaco) – 1.06%
19. Zé Roberto (Hambourg) – 0.73%
20. Hulk (FC Porto) – 0.73%
21. Filipe (Deportivo La Coruna) – 0.64%
22. Anderson (Manchester United) – 0.60%
23. Nilmar (Villarreal) – 0.42%
24. Michel Bastos (Lyon) – 0.32%
25. Felipe Melo (Juventus) – 0.27%
26. Lucas (Liverpool) – 0.25%
27. Fabio Aurelio (Liverpool) – 0.22%
28. Gilberto Silva (Olympiakos) – 0.19%
29. Marcelo (Real Madrid) – 0.16%
30. Maxwell (FC Barcelona) – 0.13%

Hallo there Felipe Melo at #27. Melo didn’t quite win Samba Gold 2009, but he did win the 2009 Golden Trashcan award for Serie A’s biggest disappointment. Maybe his 2010 will be better.

There were three other lists: One for internet only votes, one from Sambafoot members and one from VIP voters (featuring World Cup winners, including Cafu, Jairzinho and Carlos Alberto). Luis Fabiano won all but the internet vote, in which Spartak Moscow’s Alex came top. You can see all Samba Gold 2009 results here.

Here’s a nice little YouTube compilation, featuring some of Luis Fabiano’s goals for Sevilla in 2009:

Some Related Stories:

Category: South America