Julinho: Fiorentina's Brazilian Right Winger

A Brazilian right winger before Garrincha’s World Cups

Julinho was an established Portuguesa player, with the 1954 World Cup behind him, when Fiorentina took him to Italy. This was before Garrincha’s World Cup triumphs. Palmeiras lists him as a right winger and describes the dribbling and passing on which his game depended.

Brazil’s better-known generations can leave Julinho easy to miss. He was no early version of Garrincha. His own club career took place on both sides of the Atlantic. Getting past a defender gave him the choice of supplying a teammate or taking a shot himself.

Three seasons that stayed with Fiorentina

Fiorentina signed him in 1955, and he helped win their first Italian championship in 1955/56. Three seasons were all he spent in Florence. Along with the title, that short stay brought a European Cup final and two more second-place league finishes.

Real Madrid beat Fiorentina in the 1957 European final. There is room in Julinho’s record for that runner-up finish without counting it as another trophy: with him on the right, the club had won the league and reached the final of Europe’s leading club competition.

Back in Brazil with Palmeiras

He returned to Brazil in 1958 and joined a rebuilding Palmeiras. The following year brought the 1959 São Paulo championship. In the club’s account of the deciding match against Santos, Julinho scores the equaliser before Romeiro gets the winner.

Then came a national title in the 1960 Taça Brasil, followed by the 1963 state championship and the 1965 Rio–São Paulo tournament. His farewell was against Náutico in February 1967. Palmeiras’s career retrospective follows those Brazilian years as well as his more familiar spell in Florence.

A goal inside the Battle of Berne

Brazil’s 1954 quarter-final against Hungary is remembered for fighting and dismissals. Julinho’s goal deserves to be considered on its own. Brazil were 3–1 down when his solo move ended with a shot across goal, leaving them one goal behind.

FIFA’s match account identifies him as the right winger. Hungary eventually won 4–2; that was the end of Julinho’s World Cup. He had shown the threat he could carry into the box, but it had not given Brazil the win.

Where Julinho fits among the great right wingers

Julinho is thirteenth in our best right wingers of all time ranking. What counts most is spread across his teams: Fiorentina’s first Italian title, important Palmeiras honours and that international example of his attacking role. The case does not rest on one club spell.

Jairzinho would later give Brazil a more forceful scorer in the position. Julinho’s appeal starts with the older winger’s job of opening a defence and supplying the attack. The finish in Berne belongs in that judgment too. We can assess both parts of his game without inventing a historical assist total.