The paths that never were

Tomorrow, at Houston Stadium in Texas, Brazil face Haiti in the second match of the group stage of the 2026 World Cup.

Following a 1–1 draw with Morocco in their opening match, Carlo Ancelotti’s side take to the pitch in search of their first win of the tournament. And, on paper, Brazil are clear favourites: the five-time world champions are ranked 5th in the FIFA rankings and have nine former ‘Ballon d'Or’ nominees in their squad. Haiti, meanwhile, are competing in only their second World Cup and, although they have talented players, have never had a player nominated for the award. The Caribbean side are ranked 85th in the FIFA rankings.

With such a huge gap between the two teams, many are expecting a dominant performance from Brazil. Another slip-up would increase the pressure and concern amongst the fans, whilst a strong performance would bolster hopes of seeing the ‘Amarelinha’ win that long-awaited sixth World Cup title, which the country has been chasing for over 20 years.

But although Brazil is known as the ‘Country of Football’ and has some of the most passionate supporters on the planet, did you know that several Brazilian players have come close to representing other national teams during their careers?

We’ve already covered this topic recently from two different perspectives.

First, we looked back to analyse former Brazilian players nominated for the ‘Ballon d'Or’ who represented other national teams on the international stage.

Then, we looked to the future, highlighting young Brazilian talents with dual nationality who may choose to play for other countries in the coming years.

Today, however, the focus is on the present.

Did you know that four players called up by Brazil for the 2026 World Cup came very close to representing other national teams before donning the Amarelinha on the biggest stage in world football?

Let’s take a look at each of their stories.

Raphinha

The best-known – and perhaps the most surprising – case among the four players is that of Raphinha, who came very close to representing Italy before choosing Brazil.

Born Raphael Dias Belloli on 14 December 1996 in Porto Alegre, the Barcelona forward had a childhood marked by hardship. Raised in Restinga, one of the poorest areas of the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, he witnessed the challenges of social inequality at first hand. Nevertheless, he found in football an opportunity to transform his own life, attracting attention from an early age for his pace, skill and ability to decide matches.

The path to the top, however, was far from straightforward.

As a young man, Raphinha tried out for the youth teams at Grêmio and Internacional, but was ultimately rejected by both clubs. For many, this might have meant the end of the dream. For him, it was just another hurdle.

After a spell at Imbituba, in Santa Catarina, he moved to Avaí’s youth teams. And it was precisely there that the opportunity arose which would change his career.

In 2016, he signed his first professional contract with Vitória de Guimarães in Portugal. The Portuguese club took a chance on his potential, and Raphinha wasted no time in living up to it. In the years that followed, he built a career marked by steady progress, playing for Sporting CP, Rennes and Leeds United before joining Barcelona in 2022.

Today, he is one of the key players in Hansi Flick’s side and is coming off the back of a season that saw him finish fifth in the voting for the ‘Ballon d’Or’ award.

For the Brazilian national team, he has also become a regular fixture in recent years, usually in the starting line-up.

But this story almost took a completely different turn.

Although he was born in Brazil and is the son of Brazilian parents, Raphinha was entitled to Italian citizenship due to the ancestry of his father, Rafael, a pagode musician. This opened up the possibility of representing Italy – and the opportunity came very close to becoming a reality.

In an interview last year, the forward revealed that he had been approached by the Italian Football Federation ahead of Euro 2020, which was held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the time, he was enjoying a fine run of form at Leeds and was seen by the Italians as a key player for the national team’s present and future. The coaching staff were in regular contact with the player, whilst Jorginho – one of the best-known examples of a Brazilian who chose to play for Italy – also spoke to him frequently in an attempt to persuade him.

And Raphinha admits he came very close to accepting.

In fact, according to him, he would have accepted if his Italian passport had been ready in time.

As well as the sporting project being attractive, the forward no longer believed he would get a chance with the Brazilian national team: “When I was at Avaí, I had an incredible season. From 11 to 12 matches in the Santa Catarina State Championship, plus the Copa do Brasil, I scored 24 goals and provided ten assists. I thought: if I did that there and didn’t make the national team – even at youth level – I won’t make the national team via Leeds, with all due respect to Leeds.” (Isabela Pagliari – YouTube)

But his plans ended up changing due to a bureaucratic detail.

His Italian passport wasn’t ready in time, and Raphinha was unable to accept the call-up from the Azzurri.

A few months later, Italy won the European Championship without him.

For a moment, it seemed as though the forward had missed his chance to be part of a historic moment. And, for him, it also seemed unlikely that he would experience anything similar whilst wearing the Brazil shirt.

But reality was to turn out quite differently.

In August 2021, just one month after Italy’s European title win, Raphinha received a call from César Sampaio, then assistant coach of the Brazilian national team, informing him of his first call-up.

It later emerged that Tite had been planning to call him up as early as May of that year, but had to postpone his plans following an injury the player sustained in April.

It was a twist of fate that completely changed the course of his international career.

Today, Raphinha looks back on that episode with gratitude: “Deep down, I still had a little hope of being able to wear the Brazil shirt. And, fortunately, my Italian passport didn’t arrive in time.” (Isabela Pagliari – YouTube)

His debut for the national team came in October of that year, and it couldn’t have gone better: two assists in the 3–1 victory over Venezuela.

Since then, he has played 40 matches for the Seleção, scoring 11 goals and providing 8 assists. He also featured at the 2022 World Cup and heads into 2026 as one of the most important players in the Brazilian national team’s plans.

Gabriel Martinelli

Another Brazilian international who almost ended up playing for Italy is Gabriel Martinelli, the Arsenal forward, who turns 25 today.

Gabriel Teodoro Martinelli Silva was born on 18 June 2001 in Guarulhos, São Paulo. Thanks to his father’s ancestry, he holds Italian citizenship and his surname ‘Martinelli’ is a testament to this family heritage.

The possibility of representing the Azzurri arose early in his career.

After an excellent debut season with Arsenal in 2019, when he quickly caught the eye in England at the age of 18, Martinelli came under the watchful eye of the Italian Football Federation. Shortly before leaving Ituano to move to London, he had obtained his Italian passport, which would have facilitated a potential call-up.

Despite the interest, the striker never hid what his priority was.

Whenever asked about the matter, he made it clear that his aim was to wear the Brazilian national team shirt: “I’m Brazilian and my dream, of course, is to play for Brazil.” (One Football)

And that was precisely the path he chose to follow.

Martinelli progressed through the youth teams and, in March 2022, received his first call-up to the senior squad. A few months later, he secured his place at the World Cup in Qatar, making the dream he had spoken of years earlier a reality.

Since then, he has cemented his place in the national team squad and has been called up again for the 2026 World Cup following another outstanding season with Arsenal, helping the Gunners reach their first Champions League final in two decades.

To date, Martinelli has made 23 appearances and scored four goals for the Brazilian national team.

Douglas Santos

Moving away from the forwards and Italy, we come to the case of Douglas Santos, who came very close to swapping Brazil for Russia before finally realising his dream of playing for the Brazilian national team.

Born Douglas dos Santos Justino de Melo on 22 March 1994 in João Pessoa, Paraíba, the left-back began his professional career at Náutico in Recife in the early 2010s.

Apart from a standout spell at Atlético Mineiro, he went on to play in Europe, where he has spent virtually his entire career. He played for Hamburg between 2016 and 2019 and then for Zenit St Petersburg, the club that has become his home in recent years.

Since arriving in Russian football in 2019, Douglas has established himself as an undisputed first-team regular and has helped the club win 13 titles, becoming one of the club’s most important players.

Unlike Raphinha and Martinelli, he already had a long history of representing Brazil.

Douglas represented the national team at youth level throughout the 2010s, played in friendlies for the senior side and was even called up for the Copa América Centenario in 2016. However, he never took to the pitch in an official match for the senior national team.

And this detail would make all the difference years later.

As he had not played in official competitions for the senior team, he remained eligible to represent another national side should he wish to do so.

In August 2024, after five years living in Russia, Douglas was officially granted Russian citizenship.

By that time, he was already over 30 and saw the prospect of a new opportunity with Brazil as increasingly remote. Naturally, he began to consider the chance to represent the country where he had built a significant part of his life and career.

The possibility was very real.

So much so that he was even called up for a friendly match between the Russian national team and Zambia in March last year.

But it was precisely that month that everything changed.

Unexpectedly, Douglas appeared on Dorival Júnior’s preliminary squad list for the World Cup qualifiers against Colombia and Argentina.

Suddenly, he found himself faced with a difficult choice: to accept the opportunity offered by Russia or to continue waiting for the chance to play for the country where he was born.

In the end, his heart won out. In his own words: “I’ve always had a great deal of respect for Russia, the country where I built a significant part of my career. But wearing the Brazilian national team shirt has always been a dream. So my priority has always been Brazil. When you’re born in Brazil, grow up watching the World Cup and dreaming of the national team, that weighs heavily on your heart.” (UOL)

With the decision made, Douglas applied to FIFA to have his sporting eligibility transferred back to Brazil. The application was approved at the end of August 2025 and, a few weeks later, he received his call-up for the World Cup qualifiers against Chile and Bolivia.

It was the start of a chapter that had seemed increasingly unlikely as the years went by.

Today, Douglas makes no secret of his satisfaction at having waited for this opportunity. At 32, he is playing in his first World Cup as a first-choice full-back for the Brazilian national team.

So far, he has made eight appearances and provided one assist whilst wearing the yellow shirt.

Ibañez

The final name on the list is Ibañez.

Born Roger Ibañez da Silva on 23 November 1998 in Canela, Rio Grande do Sul, and raised in Tramandaí, the defender heads into the 2026 World Cup as one of Ancelotti’s key players to strengthen the national team’s defence.

At 27, Ibañez stands out for his versatility. Although he mainly plays as a centre-back, he can also play at right-back when needed.

Since 2023, he has played for Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia, where he quickly became a key member of the team and helped them win three titles. Prior to that, he enjoyed the highlights of his career in Europe whilst playing for Roma, the club that brought him to international attention.

Like the other players on this list, Ibañez also had the opportunity to represent another national team.

His father is Brazilian, but his mother was born in Uruguay, which grants him dual citizenship and would have made him eligible to play for La Celeste.

Despite this, his choice never seemed to cause any great hesitation.

From an early age, the defender showed a preference for representing the country where he was born and raised.

His reward came in September 2022, when he received his first call-up to the Brazilian national team. His debut took place later that same month.

In the years that followed, however, opportunities were fewer and farther between. Before his call-up for the 2026 World Cup, his last match for the national team had been in 2023.

Even so, Ibañez has never hidden his pride in wearing the yellow shirt.

Now, after years of building his career across Brazil, Italy and Saudi Arabia, he has the opportunity to represent the ‘Amarelinha’ on the biggest stage in world football – exactly as he had always dreamed: “My wish has always been to play for Brazil; I’m Brazilian, and that’s why being here today is a source of great pride for me.” (GZH)

In the end, it’s the same shirt

Brazil is a country made up of people from very different backgrounds. It is therefore no surprise that these are not the only players in the squad with links to other nationalities, whether through family heritage or having spent much of their lives abroad.

An interesting example is that of goalkeeper Alisson.

It is no coincidence that his former teammates at Roma nicknamed him ‘the German’. The German influence is even evident in his surname ‘Becker’, which is quite common in Germany. His father and grandmother spoke German, and he was born and raised in Novo Hamburgo, a city in Rio Grande do Sul with strong ties to German immigration.

Even so, there has never been any confirmation that Alisson holds German citizenship, nor any reports that he has ever considered playing for the German national team. In football, his career has always been linked to Brazil, the national team for which he was one of the key players in their 2019 Copa América victory.

The cases of Raphinha, Gabriel Martinelli, Douglas Santos and Roger Ibañez, however, show how seemingly minor details can completely change a career.

With a simple change of direction, Raphinha and Martinelli could be playing for Italy today. Douglas Santos might have worn the Russian shirt. Roger Ibañez could have followed the path to Uruguay.

But things turned out differently.

Each of them, for different reasons, chose to represent the country where they were born and raised. And that decision has brought them this far: members of the Brazilian squad for the 2026 World Cup and contenders to write their names into the history of the Seleção.

Now, they share the same goal that has driven the whole country for over two decades: to bring home that long-awaited sixth World Cup title.

Will they succeed?

We won’t have to wait much longer to find out.