Jorginho not classed as foreign under CBF’s tightening quota at Flamengo | OneFootball

Jorginho, a Euro 2020 winner with Italy, is not classed as a foreign player at Flamengo. Born in Imbituba, Santa Catarina, he falls outside the CBF’s foreigner count. According to Coluna Do Fla, the federation is cutting the foreign quota over the next four seasons.

Clubs can list nine per match now, then eight in 2027, seven in 2028 and six in 2029, before it drops to five by 2030. Flamengo already exceed the quota with 11 foreign players and would need to offload someone to avoid leaving a foreigner out each round from next year.

The foreigners are Argentines Rossi and Freitas, Uruguayans De La Cruz, Arrascaeta, Varela and Viña, who is on loan at Cruzeiro, Ecuadorians Plata and Valencia, Chilean Pulgar, Spaniard Saúl and Colombian Jorge Carrascal.

Jorginho came through Hellas Verona’s youth system, then played for Napoli, Chelsea and Arsenal before returning to Brazil with Flamengo in 2025. Courted by the Italian federation early in his rise, he accepted naturalisation and built his international career with Italy.

Across the league there are seven similar cases not counted as foreign. They include Maurício of Palmeiras, Carlos Coronel of São Paulo, João Costa of Cruzeiro, Rafael Tolói of São Paulo, Matheus Reis of Fluminense, Niclas Eliasson of Internacional and Kannemann of Grêmio.

Flamengo’s football director José Boto criticised the measure, arguing it will weaken Brazilian football. He said the best players will still leave for Europe, clubs will struggle to retain value and the league’s quality will fall.

Source: Coluna Do Fla

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”