Although the number has been marked in recent years, the presence of foreign players in Brazil has never been a common fact.
Generally they come from Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia and other neighboring countries but few achieve success.
A much more rare event is a player coming from Europe and beyond to gain fame stay playing in Brazil.
 
Petkovic, a Serbian player, born in 1972 in Majdanpek, ex-Yuguslávia recognized as one of the more technical players working in Brazil and one of the best foreign players have already played in the country.
In his native country he's known under the nickname Rambo, He was the youngest player to play a official match in the history of Yugoslavian football, debuting when he was 16 years and 15 days old in 1988 playng for FK Radnički Niš against FK Željezničar.
he made few matches for the Yugoslav National team, first by disagreements with the coach Slobodan Santrač, who didn't call him for 1998 FIFA World Cup. A bad relantionship with the Football Association of Yugoslavia comittee was also a problem.
In 2006, for the World Cup in Germany, there was a campaign in Serbia to include him in the team, but nothing came of it and he was not picked. Serb coach Ilija Petković thought he would disrupt the team's harmony, as he has a reputation of having a very loud personality. Ironically, he called another Petković for the Cup, his son Dušan, who had never played for the national team.

From Radnički Niš, he moved to Red Star Belgrade, with whom he played until 1994, winning two Yugoslav First Leagues.
After a pass by spanish teams (Real Madrid, Sevilla, Racing) he came to play for Vitória BA in Brazil. Then, after a quickly unsuccessfully passage by Italy (Venezia) returns to Brazil .

At Flamengo his skills helped the club win 2 Rio de Janeiro State Champioship titles, in 2000 and 2001.His free kick goal, remembered until today, in the final in 2001 allowed Flamengo to win its third title in a row against arch-rivals Vasco. One month later, another free kick goal of him, against São Paulo, allowed his team to win the Copa dos Campeões and return to Copa Libertadores next year. Very popular at the time, he was known as "Pet" by the supporters.
His big moment in the first half of 2001 opened doors for other players of Yugoslav origin in Brazil, with another five coming in ,but none has come to sign for so long and / or success in the country.

Known as a great free and corner kicker and ball passer, Pet made history in other brazilian clubs. Acting by Fluminense in a match against Cruzeiro in the opponent stadium (Mineirão), he led Flu in a 6 x 2 win, scoring twice, booth beautiful goals - in the first one, which was the 1000º of the club in Campeonato Brasileiro (what made the directors order to build a plate to him), "Pet" dribbled three opponents in a short space and kicked when he saw the coming of the goalkeeper; in the second one, Petković made a strong kick away from the great area, with his left leg. After another great exhibitions, the Serb received his second Bola de Prata(Silver Ball), consecutively. After played for many clubs in Brazil still playing today for Atlético MG.
 
However the big moment of Petkovic was in a decision between Flamengo and Vasco. Besides the historic rivalry between the teams several provocations involved that game. Vasco had a good team in the season and another great hero of that match was the young goalkeeper Julio Cesar, today in Inter(Milano).
This video shows how a Serbian player became a idol for the fans of the most popular club in Brazil.


Petkovic official  website: http://www.petkovic10.com/
Written with a little help from Wikipedia.