Harborough Town have pulled off one of the most bizarre signings in football history with a deal to bring in former Brazil international Sandro.
The seventh-tier side announced the shock signing in what looked like an April Fool’s joke.
However, with the deal coming on November 5, it was anything but, as the 35-year-old posed with club staff holding his trademark no.30 shirt.
With the news quickly going viral, Sandro joined talkSPORT to discuss how his surprise return came about.
“I was in the Tottenham stadium talking to the [Harborough management] and they said ‘Sandro, can you play for my team’ and I said ‘yes why not’,” he revealed.
“This was a real competition, the FA Cup, and they said, ‘Sandro come down, we’ll pay you, you play with us’ and I said ‘no forget it, it’s not about the money, I’ll go there just to enjoy with you guys and have fun’.”
Sandro went on to reveal that this is a one-game comeback, with Harborough – the lowest ranked side in the FA Cup – drawing Reading after their 4-1 win over Tonbridge Angels.
“This is just for a game, I don’t have a contract with them, it’s just for me to go there and enjoy football because I miss it,” he continued.
“What an opportunity for me to go there and enjoy football again for one last match, so I said ‘why not?’”
Sandro played 110 Premier League games for Tottenham, QPR and West Brom, while he earned 17 caps for Brazil.
Players he has called teammates include Gareth Bale, Neymar and Thiago Silva before retiring from playing in September 2023.
He added: “I love football because of this things. I’ve finished by UEFA B [coaching licence] and I thought it would be amazing for me to go there and feel the changing room again and the players and be part of football again.”
Explaining the move, Harborough Town boss Mitch Austin said: “What an unbelievable signing for the club, I really cannot express how I am feeling.
“I had a chance conversation with Sandro a couple of weeks ago and we got talking about football, told him about Harborough Town FC and the journey we are on and he has been messaging me ever since to sign on, totally unbelievable and gobsmacked is how I would describe this signing.
“These sort of signings don’t happen every day but when you get a chance to sign an ex-professional footballer who has played at the highest level in the Premier League and internationally with Brazil, you just cannot turn it down.
“Being a Tottenham Hotspur fan myself I knew all about Sandro, but when I looked back at a few photos online and there he was stood in a Brazil team photo with the likes of Neymar Jr., Ronaldinho, Thiago Silva, Dani Alves, Marcelo, I was like what is going on, pinch me!
“But credit to Sandro he has kept himself really fit and is an absolute great guy, down to earth who when the chairman and I met with him came across very genuine, polite and humble, you could really sense there was a real desire to get the signing done on his part, I am absolutely delighted to have him at our club.
“I think the players and staff around the club can learn great things from him and develop and watch his professionalism and understand what is needed if they want to progress and play at the highest possible level of the game. However long he stays we will all become better for it.”
Sandro first moved to England six levels higher in the football pyramid when he swapped Internacional for Spurs in 2010.
In north London he recorded 106 appearances and three goals from defensive midfield and he also worked his way into the Brazil squad at the 2011 Copa America.
Departing in 2014, he stayed in England with QPR and West Brom before stints in Turkey, Italy, Portugal and back home in Brazil.
His new club, based in Leicestershire, are now the lowest-ranked team left in the competition, but could well have their sights on further upsets thanks to the addition of Sandro.
So small are their opponents that the entire population of Market Harborough could fit inside Reading’s 24,000-capacity Madejski Sadium.
And despite it being for just one game, he’s dreaming of an FA Cup reunion with Tottenham in the third round.
