With Tottenham opening their season with a 1-0 win this weekend, we take a look at one of their new recruits – Paulinho.
1) His full name is ‘José Paulo Bezerra Maciel Júnior’
2) Growing up in Sao Paulo, he played for his local team’s youth side but was eventually released without reaching their first team.
3) At the age of 25, Tottenham are his 7th club in his career.
4) After three years at Corinthians he signed for Spurs with a fee attached of £17.5million. For several weeks, he was their club record signing.
5) Since 2011 he has played 18 times for the Brazil national team, bagging five goals from midfield.
6) When playing for Polish second division team LKS Lodz, although completing 17 appearances, he never scored a goal.
7) He was hardly known in the football world until 2009, when his arrival into Seire B with Bragantino sparked interest from other fellow Italian sides and plenty of South American giants.
8) Andre Villas-Boas is rumoured to have been watching Paulinho for over a year, firstly as an immediate replacement for Luca Modric – although this never materialised into anything.
