Juninho's new chapter in love affair with Boro

Juninho's last competitive game was in the World Cup final. His next, according to encouraging noises from Middlesbrough, where he returns in their reserves against Bradford tonight, could be against Everton this weekend.

It would be a fitting comeback. Juninho's last competitive match for Boro, on 14 May 2000, was against Everton. Boro won 2-0 and Juninho bid adios with a goal. He would welcome the chance to return in similar fashion.

"It would be strange to play in England but not play for Middlesbrough," said the midfielder, who turned 30 last Saturday, of his latest return. "That's why I'm here for the third time. And this time I deserve to win something."

His love affair with Middlesbrough has had more twists and turns than a Ronaldinho free-kick. It started with a set piece in the Umbro Cup at Wembley in 1995, when he scored a scorcher for Brazil and convinced Bryan Robson he was worth a scouting trip to São Paulo. The welcome to Teesside that October was so tumultuous that the Riverside faithful could barely hear themselves laughing over the samba band.

The 1996-97 season – Juninho's only full year in the North-east to date – saw drama, controversy and tears as the pain of relegation was intensified by defeats in two Wembley cup finals. A move to Atletico Madrid followed, forced by the powers-that-be in Brazil. They said he would have no chance of a place at the 1998 World Cup if he was playing First Division football. He left reluctantly but then broke his leg, missed France 98 anyway, recovered (partially) and then briefly rejoined Middlesbrough on loan in 1999-00.

Boro were not convinced of his fitness so he returned to Spain and then Brazil, on loan. Two successful seasons at home saw him regain and maintain his international place, capped by five games in last summer's World Cup, and Boro signing him for a third time. He promptly sustained serious knee ligament damage in a pre-season friendly.

He clearly still thinks of the 1996-97 season, a year of much promise but ultimate failure, as unfinished business. "It was an incredible season because we went twice to Wembley and that meant a lot to the supporters. But at the same time we went down. The fans still say it was the best season ever but it should've been better."

He understates the denouement as "a little punch." "I was very involved with the club so I didn't want to leave. I was happy. Maybe if we'd won one of the cups it would have been different."

The proof of sincerity came with his subsequent returns to a part of the country he now loves. "I never thought I wasn't going to adapt [to the North-east]," he said of moving from São Paulo (an industrial sprawl with a population of 20m) to a new home on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors. "And anyway it's impossible not to adapt to a place where the people are so polite."

The football took a little more getting used to, but these days Juninho says he would rather play in England than anywhere else. "It was incredible at first because, when you're watching English football on television, you think there is no space to play. But when you compete you can find space when you're on the pitch. To me there's a very big difference between watching and playing."

He has also put paid to the perception that a slight stature is an insurmountable problem. "Never mind your size. Your legs have to be strong. My legs have always been strong so I don't need to be tall to play. If it was basketball or volleyball, sure you need to be tall. But not with football. You have to know how to play. You have to be quick and then you don't have to try to make contact with the other players. Most [one-on-one] balls I'm going to lose but I try to get there first."

Of his international colleagues he added: "They've changed their minds about English football. They know now it's exciting. If [permit] controls were more open then there are a lot of South Americans who want to come to England."

Juninho added that the likes of Ronaldo and Rivaldo have been tempted, just not quite tempted enough. "They haven't found the right move. They want to go to a club that's going to play in the Champions' League all the time, and a club fighting for a title. And maybe in England no one [appropriate] showed an interest."

Whether any English club would have been able to match the probable asking prices is also open to speculation, although Arsenal managed to procure the services of Gilberto Silva quite cheaply and are reportedly also interested in Ronaldinho.

Juninho played alongside both in the Far East in the World Cup, an event he says Brazil were always confident of winning. "It was an incredible atmosphere in our group. We had a lot of difficulty in qualification and didn't play so well. But we met together only one or two days before each match. When we had the chance to train for a month and a half, we got it together."

Brazil's eventual success was something he always believed in. "When we arrived at the World Cup our mental [side] was very sharp," he says. "The press didn't know that so that's why they thought we wouldn't do so well. They were surprised when we played our first three games. And then they started to believe us that we could play very well. Because our mental [side] was strong."

Of the quarter-final against England, he said: "England should've attacked Brazil more when we were down to 10 players." He found England's reluctant to attack and reliance on the long ball strange. "They tried to use the long balls and but defenders were strong in the air."

Ultimately, the game turned on a free-kick. Much like Juninho's career.

* Juninho is one of the players featured in Nick Harris's England Their England, the definitive story of foreign footballers in the English game since 1888, published by Pitch Publishing and due out this summer.