More Joga Bonito in England? Three players from Brazil that could join the PL this summer | OneFootball

The Premier League has been a common destination for Brazilian footballers for a long time.

There have been 31 Brazilian players to have played at least one minute in the Premier League this season, the most of any nationality outside of England — seven more than second-placed France. The connection even extends beyond nationalities.

More recently, Everton signed Carlos Alcaraz, who was a club record signing for current Copa do Brasil champions Flamengo. The 22 year-old Argentine made his return to England after a short stint with Southampton between 2023 and 2024.

This Brazil-England switch could be repeated even more times in the near future, with lots of other players fit to leave the country who perfected football to join the one that created it. Here are three examples.

Jhon Arias

Whenever someone talks about the Premier League, the first thoughts are of a physical, intense and demanding league – possibly the most in the world on all three counts. Fluminense’s Jhon Arias checks every box in that category.

Since the Colombian’s first full season in the Brazilian Serie A in 2022, there have been just four occurrences of a player recording 45+ chances created, tackles made and take-ons completed. Arias has responsible for three of those occasions, in 2022, 2023 and 2024. In 2023 he was joined by Emmanuel Martinez of Fortaleza.

Arias has attracted plenty of European interest as of late, with Fluminense refusing to sell him to clubs like Olympiacos, Feyenoord and Galatasaray. But it would be smart of any English team to make a run for him. Arias is a tricky and skilful winger with great work rate and high tactical discipline who also plays comfortably in both sides of the pitch. The 27 year-old has never played outside of Brazil or Colombia, which could suggest a sort of risk, but could also drive the price tag down a little bit. Besides, he’s been a regular for his national team in the past three years.

Fluminense struggled in the 2024 season after winning the Copa Libertadores in 2023, but Arias was one of the only bright spots last year. In 2025, he started off the regional and domestic tournaments with one goal and four assists in six games.

Should Arias stay in Brazil until the middle of the year, there is a chance he drags attention with potential good performances in the Club World Cup. Trying to snag him away before that could save any Premier League team a lot of money.

Gerson

Gerson has already had two different stints in Europe and didn’t necessarily excel in any of them. He left Fluminense for Roma in 2016, spending three years in Italy including a one-year loan at Fiorentina. He returned to Brazil in 2019 for two incredible years full of titles before leaving again – this time to Marseille.

Still, he spent most of his time abroad playing out wide or as an outside centre-midfielder with a tendency to go to the left wing. Back in Flamengo — and especially under current manager Filipe Luís — the 27-year-old rediscovered his best form as a false right-midfielder. He picks up the ball from the right wing but immediately cuts inside to have more space to work with and see the game from a better angle.

Gerson stands out in the Brazilian Serie A for his combination of power and technique. In his best days (which are very common), he looks like a grown up playing with children. This would probably not be the case in the Premier League, but terrorising smaller full-backs and dragging them out of position would be a safe bet.

Across domestic Brazilian competitions since Filipe Luis took over at Flamengo, Gerson ranks first in take-on success percentage (64% – 15 or more attempted), third in duel success rate (57.6% – 60 or more contested) and third among attacking midfielders in percentage of passes that are progressive (30%).

After coming up as winger and having success as a holding midfielder, Gerson now looks like his final version combining a bit of both roles. And, entering his physical prime, deserves a chance at the biggest stage following years of dominance in Brazil.

Yuri Alberto

Corinthians

A long-time West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers transfer target, Corinthians striker Yuri Alberto is playing the best football of his young career. A graduate of rivals Santos’ academy, he burst onto the scene in the Brazilian Serie A for Internacional in 2020-21, guaranteeing a move to Europe later in 2022.

At Zenit, however, he never really took off and returned home six months later — also due to political conflicts in Russia. His whole Corinthians stint has been defined by runs, which initially suggests inconsistency — though he seems to have found himself now.

Yuri ended the last season in an incredible run of form, scoring at least one goal in each of his final nine league appearances. That’s the second-largest goascoring run since Opta started collecting data on the Brazilian Serie A in 2013, only behind Gabigol’s 11-straight games back in 2019.

Besides, he did so in quite an efficient manner: out of all 10 players to have received at least 15 big chances in the league last year, Yuri was one of only two to record 50% or more in big chance conversion rate (56% – behind only Flamengo’s Pedro, who had an outrageous 61%).

He’s started the 2025 season slightly quieter, “only” scoring five goals in 12 games. But he has played in just 64% of available minutes so far, with manager Ramón Díaz load managing his squad in the regional tournament before the league kicks off.

With blistering pace and a knack for finding space behind the defensive lines, Yuri Alberto looks sure to score lots of goals wherever he goes next. The 23-year-old is also very easy to like from the perspective of fans, since he takes pride in defending, pressing and working hard for the full 90 minutes.