I participated three days behind an interview with former striker Jürgen Klinsmann, 61, to whom he admired a lot as a teenager and one of Germany’s highlights in winning the Italy World Cup in 1990. He was an explosive and vibrant top scorer.
The central theme of the press conference was Bundesliga 2025-2026, the German Championship, which would start on Friday (22).
In my turn to ask, I introduced myself and asked, “Do you know who are the Brazilians who will be playing this year in the Bundesliga? What can you say about them?”
“Help me, Luís. Who’s playing in Germany?” Said Klinsmann, who after playing play began his coach career (teams from Germany, USA, South Korea) and today is one of the members of the FIFA technical study group.
Klinsmann’s ignorance shows how low is Brazil in the Bundesliga.
The country had great players playing in the Germanic League, such as defender Lúcio, world champion with Brazil in 2002, midfielder Zé Roberto, strikers Élber, Paulo Sérgio, Amoroso and Douglas Costa, midfielder Diego Ribas, midfielder Philippe Coutinho, all with passages in the Brazilian team.
Currently, the sunset reigns. There are nine brasucas in teams of the elite of Germany: Kauã Santos, Yan Couto, Arthur Augusto, Arthur Chaves, Bernardo, Rogério, Vini Souza, Leo Scienza and Romulo.
At the Premier League (England), they play more than 30 Brazilians, with several being summoned in recent years to the selection, cases of Alison, Ederson, Gabriel Magalhães, Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães, Andreas Pereira, Joelinton, João Pedro, Matheus Cunha, Savinho, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Richarlison.
Among the representatives of Brazil in the Bundesliga, you may meet the right back Yan Couto. The others, only if it is a fanatic for the championship, because not all are holders.
“It has Romulus, recently hired by RB Leipzig to replace Sesko, be the reference man in the attack,” I told Klinsmann, mentioning the club’s recent reinforcement.
“I have never seen him play. There is a lot of movement of players coming from South America to Europe, it is not easy to accompany them all,” he said in a response not consistent with reality.
The Paraná Rômulo, 23, who acted on the first team of Athletico-PR from 2021 to 2023, had been playing for the Göztepe, from Turkey, since early 2024. He has not been from South America to Europe now, has been there for a long time.
It was in the first division of Türkiye that Romulo stood out, scoring 17 goals and giving 10 assists in the 2024-2025 season, adding Turkish championship and Turkey Cup.
Leipzig, which negotiated Slovenian Sesko center forward, with Manchester United for 77 million euros (R $ 489 million), paid 20 million euros (R $ 127 million) per Romulus, making him the third most expensive transaction of a Brazilian in Bundesliga, behind Douglas Costa (30 million euros, in 2015, from Ukrainian Shakhtar for Bayern) and Yan Couto (25 million euros this year from Manchester City to Borussia Dortmund).
Similar to Sesko (1.95 m), Romulus (1.93 m) is height, but its style is different, as it likes to get out of the area to participate in the game. He said, in an interview with Brazilian journalists in which I participated, that he finds his football similar to Pedro, Flamengo.
On his website, in the report that presents the Brazilian to the fans, Leipzig titled: “A dynamic striker from Brazil: meet Romulo”.
In the debut in the Bundesliga, against favorite Bayern on Friday, Romulus, wearing shirt 40, started in reserve. He entered the break, 3-0 against. Little did and saw Englishman Harry Kane score three goals to close the scoring in a “Vira Three, ends six”, a la set game.
Romulus has a long and hard way to walk in Germany. You will need dynamism in cavalry doses so as not just another Brazilian who has been there, five years ago – the last worthy of mention is Coutinho, in 2020, at Bayern – without being remembered.
