Arthur is the latest example of Bayer Leverkusen's Brazilian success story

On the weekend, Brazilian wing-back Arthur impressed in his starting XI debut for Bayer Leverkusen. The 21-year-old is the latest example of Leverkusen's overall success story under Xabi Alonso.

Imagine being in Germany for less than 12 months, impressing in your first-ever Bundesliga start, and then, after the match, facing the media to take and answer questions in German. That is precisely what Leverkusen’s 21-year-old Brazilian wing-back Arthur did on Sunday in Frankfurt.

With the second leg against Roma just around the corner, Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso heavily rotated his side against Frankfurt. While Piero Hincapié, Jonathan Tah, Jeremie Frimpong, Josip Stanisić, and Amine Adli all started from the bench, Alejandro Grimaldo and Florian Wirtz didn’t even make the trip to Frankfurt.

Arthur was one of the players to rotate into the squad. Signed for €7m from América FC last summer, Arthur featured in the 3-2 win over Leipzig and the 3-0 win over Gladbach to start the season before suffering a muscle injury that kept him out of the squad for 37 games.

“It is great to be back on the pitch,” Arthur said when asked about finally being back on the pitch. “A great feeling, especially as I worked hard to get this opportunity.”

Far away from Brazil, suffering an injury to keep you out of the squad is the sort of thing that has the potential to derail the career of a young South American player coming to Europe. One example that comes to mind is Brazilian defender Breno, who was signed by Bayern Munich in 2008 but, after a series of injuries, fell into a deep depression and, after burning down his house, was convicted of aggravated arson.

The experience with Breno meant that Bayern have given up signing Brazilians directly from Brazil. In the meantime, Leverkusen are, in many ways, a pioneer for European clubs when it comes to scouting and signing players directly from South America.