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FourFourTwo
FourFourTwo
Sport
Joe Mewis

‘The dirt pitches of Brazil gave me the gift of ball control. You couldn’t trust the ground, so you had to improvise constantly. That chaos sharpened me technically’ How Denilson went from the streets to the world’s most expensive player

Denílson Brazil FourFourTwo
Denilson.

When Brazilian winger Denilson made his world record £21.5million move from Sao Paulo to Real Betis shortly before his 21st birthday in 1998, he was heralded as the Selecao’s next superstar.

And while Denilson would go on to win 61 Brazilian caps and make more than 500 career appearances, he never quite reached his potential, with FourFourTwo ranking him at No.1 in a 2015 rundown of disappointing club record signings.

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