Top 5 Brazilian players at Bayern Munich

3. Rafinha

“He was always there when the team needed him,” Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge recently said as Rafinha waved goodbye to the club in May. At right-back or left, as Philipp Lahm’s understudy or Joshua Kimmich’s mentor, Rafinha found ways to make himself useful.

He might only have won four caps for Brazil but the diminutive and adaptable defender was a big contributor at club level, making 266 appearances during a Bayern career spanning eight seasons. In addition, seven successive titles cemented a rich legacy.

2. Lucio

Like Ze Roberto before him, Lucio cut his teeth in the Bundesliga at Bayern’s rival Leverkusen. The elegant centre-back traded up in 2004 and stayed for five years, winning three domestic doubles in that time.

Lucio attracted as much acclaim for his ability to carry the ball forward as his faultless defending and scored seven goals in 144 top-flight appearances during his stay. Spells at Inter, Juventus and Sao Paulo followed for the 2002 World Cup winner, who continues to play in his homeland aged 41.

1. Giovane Elber

The only non-European member of the club’s hall of fame was a human highlight reel throughout his six excellent seasons. Signed from Stuttgart in 1997, the “Samba Striker” wrote his name into the annals by forging an entertaining and prolific partnership with target man Carsten Jancker.

Elber scored the bulk of goals – 140 of them in all competitions – to help deliver four Bundesliga titles, three DFB-Pokal triumphs and a Champions League crown in 2001. The fringe Selecao forward signed off with a league-high 21 goals in his final season in Germany before joining Lyon in 2003.