World Cup winner with a left foot like a traction engine was considerably older than he claimed, according to teammates.Branco, who lifted the Jules Rimet trophy at USA 1994, arrived at Middlesbrough in 1996.
A set piece specialist, the left back scored a memorable long range free-kick to knock out the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.
He also hammered home a penalty in their shootout victory over Italy in the final.READ MORE: Ex-England star can ‘make his willy disappear’ and showed ‘trick’ to Steven GerrardWhen Bryan Robson brought him to the Premier League club, where he already had a couple of popular samba boys in Juninho and Emerson, fans and players had cause for excitement.
But after seeing Branco close up, his teammates were apparently suspicious about his age. Craig Hignett, who was at Boro at the time, told the Undr The Cosh podcast: "Branco came and he was 45."He came and we said, ‘How old are you?’ He said, ‘I’m 33.’ We’d seen him on a video of the World Cup where he was 33 in that video and it was 12 years before.
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