Brothers of soccer stars who didn’t have such a good career
It is no longer a surprise in football that even in top-level matches there can be brothers on the pitch. Sometimes they play for the same team, sometimes against each other. In this European Cup season, for example, we have witnessed the battles between the Hoilund brothers, the McAllister brothers, and the Hernandez brothers.
But it often happens that in one family there is a very successful footballer and someone who can only dream of their relative’s achievements at the online soccer betting sites. We decided to make a selection of players whose football careers were much less successful than their brothers’.
Maximiliano and Emanuel Bianchi are cousins of Lionel Messi
Everyone has long known the rumour that one of the legendary Messi’s brothers is Bojan Krkic, with whom Leo played at Barcelona at the turn of the decade – their great-great-grandfathers were allegedly brothers. However, the Argentine also has brothers whose relationship is a proven fact. Maximiliano and Emanuel Bianchi are Messi’s cousins on his mother’s side.
The former is now 39 years old and retired from football in 2017. He has never played in Europe, having played for clubs in Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Mexico, the most famous of which was Flamenga. Maxi played as a striker, but did not impress with his performance – only 75 goals in 15 years in football. Lionel had a season in 2011/12 when he scored more goals for the club and the national team.
Emanuel is 35, but has been without a club for more than a year, although he has not officially announced his retirement. His last club was the Paraguayan side Tacuari. Like Maxi, he mostly played for clubs in his region (for example, he was with Bayi and Vasco da Gama), but at the beginning of his career he also looked into Europe – he played a few matches for Munich 1860 and was listed in the Girona squad. He was listed because Emanuel did not play a single official match for Dovbyk and Tsygankov’s current club.
Paulo, Maximiliano and Diego Suarez are Luis Suarez’s brothers
Another Barcelona legend has three brothers. Unlike Messi, all of them are family to Luis.
Paulo is the oldest, he is now 43 years old. He played for teams from Uruguay, Honduras and Colombia, and we won’t even list their names because they are unlikely to be familiar to you. In 1999, he managed to score 5 goals for the youth team, but was not called up to the national team. He finished his career in May 2018.
Maximiliano, who is now 36, also cannot boast of any famous clubs in his biography, and he ended his career much earlier than Paulo – at the age of 28.
The youngest of the four brothers fared even worse. Diego hung up his boots on a nail at the age of 24. “The thing I am most like Luiz is the way I run. That’s where the similarities end in terms of football. Now Diego is raising his son and living a normal life.
Roberto de Assis is Ronaldinho brother
The 2005 Ballon d’Or winner made many football fans fall in love with him, but he was not the first in his family to try to conquer Europe. Roberto de Assis, Ronaldinho’s older brother, started his career back in 1987, tried his hand at Swiss side Sion (won a couple of championships and three cups), French side Montpellier and Portuguese side Sporting, tried to break through in Brazil, playing for Gremio, Vasco, Fluminense and Corinthians, and even briefly visited Japan.
He was called up to the Brazilian youth and junior national teams, and in 1989 he won bronze at the World Cup, but that was the maximum for Assis in a yellow shirt. He ended his career at the age of 31 due to a knee injury, and then became his younger brother’s agent. “He is my idol. He went through a lot, but he never stopped helping me. He inspired me to fight to the last,” Ronaldinho said of Assis.
In 2020, the brothers were briefly imprisoned together in Paraguay for using fake passports to enter the country.
Aitor Busquets is Sergio Busquets’ brother
And let’s finish with the legends of Barcelona by telling you about Sergio Busquets’ brother. However, there is almost nothing to tell, as Aitor’s career was very short and uninteresting.
In childhood, the boys played football together a lot, which is not surprising, as their father, Carles, was a Barcelona player himself, playing as a goalkeeper. He influenced the children’s decision to connect their lives with the sport.
However, Aitor and Sergio’s careers followed different paths. The former signed a contract with Spanish fourth division football club Gava in January 2010 and retired in 2013, although he had been trying to find a new club for several years before that. Sergio’s story is well known – he is still in football, unlike his younger brother (Aitor is now 32).
Gires Kembo-Ekoko is Kylian Mbappe’s half-brother
If you thought that Ethan Mbappe, who recently made his professional football debut, was Kylian’s only brother, here’s an unexpected fact. One of football’s biggest stars also has an older brother, Jires Kemba-Ekoko.
On 19 July 2008, Zeljko Lyubenovych, Vasyl Gigiadze, Volodymyr Gomeniuk, Lucky Idahor and other Tavria players under the leadership of Mykhailo Fomenko could not have imagined that in the 78th minute of the Intertoto Cup match, a relative of the player who would become world famous a decade later would come on as a substitute. At the time, Gires was playing for Rennes, and it was with this club that he reached the peak of his career. He played 139 matches for the team, playing as a striker, and scored 21 goals.
From 2012 to 2017, Kembo-Ekoko played for clubs in the UAE and Qatar, and at the age of 27, he signed a contract with Turkish side Bursaspor. After scoring 4 goals in two seasons, Gires realised that he no longer had great prospects, so he ended his career at the age of 31.
How did they become half-brothers in the first place? Kembo-Ekoko was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but at an early age his mother decided to send her son to Europe to get an education. His parents stayed at home, and Gires was adopted by Mbappe’s family.
