Neto Borges on Life With Bristol City and Brazilian Footballer Stereotypes | OneFootball

A well-traveled career that has seen stops in Brazil, Portugal, Sweden, France, and England, Neto Borges shares insight into his career arc and his goals with Bristol City in 2026. 

Since being promoted to the EFL Championship a decade ago, Bristol City have toiled in the middle of the table, and while recent years have seen better results, the club currently sits in 11th through 28 matches in the 2025-26 season.

Nevertheless, Bristol City still have promotion ambitions. It’s been 46 years since the club has seen the English top flight, and one player looking to guide the return to the promised land is Vivaldo ‘Neto’ Borges dos Santos.

Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images

Born on September 13, 1996, Neto Borges was raised in Saubara (population 12,000) in the state of Bahia. From the moment he picked up his first football at the age of 5, Borges was obsessed with becoming a professional footballer.

He would bounce around with various teams in Brazil’s lower divisions, and he spearheaded Clube Atlético Tubarão to their maiden Copa Santa Catarina title, which caught the eye of Swedish side Hammarby IF.

At 21 years of age, Borges was going to be leaving sunny Brazil for Stockholm, and he was going to be doing so in the middle of the winter.

“I had never seen snow in my life; it never snows in the northeast of Brazil,” Borges said in an exclusive Urban Pitch interview. “The coldest I’d ever experienced would have been 41 degrees Fahrenheit, because I’d also played in the south of Brazil. When you can’t even imagine what snow is like, when you don’t know what to expect from the city you’re going to, when you’re coming from a club like Tubarão in the fourth division, and you go to a powerhouse like Hammarby with so many passionate fans…it ended up being a huge culture shock.

“That was where my career really started; before that, I had been playing in regional competitions, trying my luck at a couple of small teams in Brazil. When I received the contract offer from Hammarby, I didn’t even know where it was located, but I just took it. I packed my bags without telling my mother, flew to Europe, underwent medical exams, and signed the contract. I called my mother and told her I was in Sweden; she didn’t even believe me, so I had to show my video to convince her. It was a huge change that helped me to prune my character, to prune the person I am today. It’s an important change.”

Borges flourished in Scandinavia and emerged as one of the best left backs in the Allsvenskan with four assists in 29 appearances. It’s why, one year after snapping him up from Brazil’s lower divisions, Hammarby sold Borges for a club-record fee of €2 million to Belgian heavyweights Genk. Borges made his debut three weeks later, playing the entirety of their 2-1 defeat to Mouscron and thus receiving a medal for Genk’s league title. However, it’d be over 10 months until he’d make his next appearance for The Smurfs.

Photo by Juan Roncoroni – Pool/Getty Images

Borges would make just eight appearances for Genk before heading back to Brazil and joining Vasco da Gama on loan. But it wasn’t the homecoming he’d envisioned for himself. Considered one of Brazil’s 12 biggest clubs, Borges struggled to cope with the pressure of playing for a “G-12″ side and was often a lightning rod for fans’ criticism.

“It was a very difficult period for me personally, because my performances weren’t the best,” Borges said to RG. “I was still learning and adapting to real football, and playing for a big team like Vasco always brings immense pressure with it. When you put on that shirt, you’re representing millions of fans, and I really wasn’t prepared for the challenge at the time.”

After a challenging spell at Vasco that saw him suffer relegation to the second tier, Borges headed back to Europe at a critical juncture in his career. With one year left on his Genk contract, Borges knew that an excellent 2021-22 season would be the difference between him sticking around in Europe’s top leagues and potentially dropping back to the Brazilian lower divisions.

Borges left Rio de Janeiro for the far more tranquil Portuguese hamlet of Tondela, where he balanced his footballing career with another career — fatherhood — and established himself as one of the best left backs in Liga Portugal. While he failed to keep Tondela afloat in the top flight, Borges nevertheless displayed his attacking prowess, scoring his first-ever senior goal in a league match against Porto before adding two more goals in the Taça de Portugal: one in the semifinal against Mafra, and another against Porto in the final.

“I had a wonderful time in Portugal,” Borges said. “I only have good memories from my time there. That was the year I married my wife and the year my son Tomás, who’s now 3 years old, was born.

“It was a very small, quiet municipality of 25,000 people, whilst the stadium only seats 5,000. Everyone knew each other, everyone greeted each other…it reminded me a lot of my small hometown. During this period, my performances gave me confidence again. I started playing football for real again. I have nothing but good memories of Tondela; it was a wonderful club that will be in my heart for the rest of my life.”

Having racked up three goals and five assists in 35 appearances for the Auriverdes, Borges made the move to Clermont Foot on a free transfer. At the time, Clermont Foot had just narrowly survived relegation to the French second tier in what was their first-ever Ligue 1 season in the club’s 111-year history.

Borges underwent a baptism of fire, starting in Clermont’s opener against the likes of Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. and losing 5-0 to Paris Saint-Germain, but he nevertheless got back on track and emerged as a vital cog in defense, scoring three goals and six assists in 64 appearances. Against all odds, Les Lanciers would finish eighth in the table, only to descend to Ligue 2 the following season.

Rather than stick around in the French second tier, Borges opted to head across the English Channel and make the move to EFL Championship side Middlesbrough, who paid €1.5 million and signed him to a contract through 2027. Borges quickly emerged as an indispensable figure in defense, providing a goal and three assists in 35 appearances as Middlesbrough narrowly missed out on a playoff spot.

Unfortunately for Borges, when he returned from his holidays in Brazil, he found himself reduced to making late cameos off the bench. It’s why, on August 31, Borges joined fellow Championship outfit Bristol City on loan for the remainder of the season, where he has become one of the first names in Gerhard Struber’s team sheet, registering three assists in 16 appearances thus far.

We caught up with Borges for a Q&A session, discussing his career arc and goals for 2026.

Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images

I first interviewed you in November 2021, when you were at Tondela. What’s changed since?

I think it’s the experience. I’ve played in a lot of different competitions like Ligue 1 and the EFL Championship since we last spoke. The Championship is a very strong league that’s watched by a huge number of people worldwide. The quality of players is incredible. I gained a lot of experience and a lot of playing time. I played a lot of games and learned a lot from all the places I went.

You’ve played in quite a few cities, but I think Rio de Janeiro has the best nightlife out of all the places you’ve called home. Did you get a chance to soak in the nightlife?

I’ve always been a family guy. I’ve never been to nightclubs, so, I don’t know the answer to that question. But in terms of the city itself, Rio de Janeiro is a very good city with many great restaurant options and a lot of places to go and have fun with your family, like the beaches. Regarding the nightlife, I wouldn’t know how to answer you. I think you’ll have to find someone who was more active in terms of nightlife, but it’s a wonderful city. Rio de Janeiro is a city that always leaves you wanting to come back.

But you must understand that there is a stereotype that Brazilians love to go out and party at nightclubs. Is that an unfair stereotype?

I think there are a few Brazilians who have made us bear the same guilt, but I also think there are a lot of Brazilians who are far more calm, who enjoy the nightlife and who don’t have any issues with it. I’m not against any of them. Each person has their own lifestyle that we have to respect.

I think people see Brazilians in a certain way, which is unfair because Brazil is so big and has so many different personalities. There are different cities, different cultures; it’s an immense country. I couldn’t classify all people in the same way; for example, I’m not someone who enjoys nightlife. I’m more of a family person, I prefer to stay home, get together with relatives, play a board game, and have a chat, and there are a lot of Brazilians like that. I think we should change that image of Brazilians a little bit and not define them by the same thing. Every person has different things that they like, and we have to respect that.

What are your main objectives for 2026?

I always have the same goals. I want to be a better person, always, for everyone around me. I want to be kind, and I want to help people. In terms of football, I want to get promoted with Bristol City. I think the club deserves it and the fans deserve it. And I want to have that experience of getting promoted with the club here in England. It would be very beautiful. If it happened this year with Bristol, I think it would be historic, of course, and it would be very important to me too personally.

Lastly, what’s your message to Bristol City supporters?

I will always give my best, as they are seeing in all the games and all the training sessions. I’m one of them on the field, I’m there representing them, and I’ve quickly acquired this passion that I feel for the club and transmitted it. I think the fans help with that, and I think the club itself helps by making the work much easier. So they can expect that I’m going to keep working hard and giving my all, doing my best on game day, and winning as many games as possible too, so that the fans can go home happy.