 However, he played just nine times in the FA Premier League and by Christmas 1996 he had left the club on a free transfer after less than a year.Branco appeared 72 times for Brazil, between April 1985 and February 1995, and scored nine goals.After sitting out the first four games at the 1994 World Cup, he scored with a memorable late free kick from 35 metres to eliminate the Netherlands in the quarter-finals, and took one of Brazil's penalties in the shootout when they beat Italy in the final.