Guilherme Arana scouting report: Why Corinthians' nutmeg master could be the next great Brazilian full-back

Next up in my summer series of Brazilian scouting reports for Unibet is one Guilherme Arana.

The Corinthians full-back, already a Football Manager legend in some quarters, has had an excellent few months for his club, impressing with his lightning-quick forays down the left and fine delivery.

The 20-year-old has already been linked with Manchester United, Sevilla, Ajax, Internazionale and Schalke, but admits his dream is to play for Barcelona or Real Madrid.

Find out more about him here.

Luan scouting report: Liverpool target has enchanted Grêmio fans and can do the same in Europe

Ding, ding ding!

Hear that? That's the big silver bell that signals the start of transfer silly season in Europe. No football for the next few months, amigos, just that old cocktail of myth, conjecture and soda. Always water it down with sod

Most deals will be done between sides in the Old Continent. But chances are there will be a few Brazilians knocking about on the radar of the big clubs, who will be keen to snaffle the new Gabriel Jesus, or perhaps the new Vinícius Júnior before he's even out of nappies.

To that end, I have started a summer series of scouting reports on the best prospects in the Brasileirão for Unibet. First up, naturally, is Luan of Grêmio, who has been linked with Liverpool.

'A full-back is everybody's friend' – on Dani Alves and Marcelo, Brazil's Chuckle Brothers

There are other attacking full-backs, but few near their level and none who make more compelling demands for your attention. 53 trophies between them, most of them in Europe's toughest competitions, tell some of the story, but their true greatness is to be located in the heart. To watch Marcelo and Dani Alves play is to remember why you fell in love with football in the first place.

There is a wide-eyed, forward-facing innocence to their play. It is there in every foray down the flank, every daft bit of skill, every laser-guided cross. Every celebration and off-field interaction, too: Alves is what Brazilians would call brincalhão – a joker, a goofball – and Marcelo is no shrinking violet. They are serious competitors and seriously good at their jobs, but neither fact quells the feelgood factor. Nor should it, either.

Read my pre-Champions League final piece on the two players who, more than any others, make full-back fun on the Eurosport website.

David Luiz 2.0: still fun, a bit less maddening & now with the chance to win over Brazil fans like he did Chelsea's

Last week, David Luiz was named in the Brazil squad for the June friendlies against Argentina and Australia.

That might not immediately strike you as remarkable. But it was Luiz's first call-up in over a year, and his first under Tite, the master navigator who has guided the Seleção into calmer waters after the stormy misery of the second Dunga era.

It would be a push to describe his 14-month absence from the squad as an exile, but it might have felt like one. Now, he has the chance to win over Brazil's fans in the same way he has Chelsea's over the last year.

Read my piece on David Luiz's career renaissance on the Football.London website.

Farewell to Maxwell, the decade's most underrated player and the man who made PSG cool

The Paris Saint-Germain players came out onto the Parc des Princes pitch wearing t-shirts bearing his name, then gave him a guard of honour. All of the mascots donned his trademark No.17 jersey. Unai Emery handed him the captain's armband on his 213th and final appearance for the club. A video message recorded by Zlatan Ibrahimovic was played on the big screens.

It was an all-singing, all-dancing send-off, and it came as little surprise when a couple of tears escaped down the recipient's cheek at full-time. Rarely, even in a career spanning over 17 years and taking in countless adventures, can Maxwell have felt so much love.

Only the delusional, of course, would claim that the Brazilian belongs to the same elite club as Alonso, Totti et al. Nor does he have one-team loyalty credentials or a drawer bursting with international caps. But there's a good argument to be made that Maxwell, the Little Full-Back That Could, has been among global football's most underrated players over the last decade or so.

Read my piece on Maxwell's farewell on the Unibet website.

Sultan of stepovers: Remembering Denílson, Brazil and São Paulo's rubber-legged Pied Piper

There he goes, steaming down the flank with a gaggle of would-be markers in tow, doing one, two, three [*fast forward to save time]... nine stepovers and whipping the ball into the box.

Yep, it's Denílson, the rubber-legged wing whippet and self-described social "tsumani", solely responsible for 70% of playground grazes sustained in the summer of 1998.

The former São Paulo, Flamengo, Palmeiras and Seleção winger is the subject of my latest South American Cult Heroes column for Unibet.

You can read it here.

Release clause: Controversy as convicted murder Bruno resumes playing career in Brazil

On 8 March, Cruzeiro – one of Brazilian football's traditional 'big 12' – took to the field for a cup match against Murici-AL wearing a special kit. The jerseys were royal blue, as ever, but did not carry the names of the players. Instead, to mark International Women's Day, the squad numbers spelt out statistics highlighting the challenges faced by women in Brazil.

"Salaries 30% lower," read the shirt belonging to midfielder Thiago Neves. Others were even more shocking: "A rape every 11 minutes"; "A woman killed every 2 hours". The club earnt plentiful praise, both at home and abroad, for drawing attention to such a worthy cause. In a country as patriarchal as Brazil, such gestures make waves.

Other clubs essayed their own initiatives, but if the sport was hoping to present a united front on the issue of women's rights, the waters would soon be muddied in spectacularly galling fashion. Just two days later, second-division Boa Esporte Clube – Minas Gerais neighbours of Cruzeiro –announced the signing of Bruno Fernandes de Souza, a player who, four years prior, had been convicted of the brutal murder of the mother of his child.

You can read my piece on Bruno's controversial return to football in the latest issue of When Saturday Comes magazine – available at newsagents and to order/read online.