Manchester City signing Sylvinho is no longer a Brazilian-Portuguese.
The Mail on Sunday says Arsenal always denied that Brazilian Sylvinho had entered the country to sign for the club on a forged Portuguese passport back in 1999.
The left-back was rated the best in the Premier League in 2000 but would not have been granted a work permit had he not possessed a European Union passport.
But he was swiftly moved out of Arsenal under a cloud in 2001 when authorities in Lisbon said they had no records of his dual Portuguese nationality.
He ended up playing for Celta Vigo in Spain before completing a move to Barcelona.
Yet, now the Brazilian is back in the Premier League for Manchester City, coincidentally taking on Arsenal yesterday and, bizarrely, he is no longer Portuguese but Spanish.
This time there is no question of the legitimacy of his dual nationality. Sylvinho has completed five years of required residency in Spain to qualify for a Spanish passport. The days of being Portuguese seem to have been quietly forgotten.
