A former Tottenham star has made a shock return to the sport after signing for seventh-tier Southern League Premier Central outfit Harborough Town.
The midfielder joined Spurs from Brazilian side Internacional in 2010 for around £8million and played 106 times for the club.
A combative ball-winner, he picked up a hefty 24 yellow cards in his spell at White Hart Lane as he helped Harry Redknapp's men to a Champions League quarter-final in 2011. The following campaign, Tottenham reached the FA Cup semi-final.
He left Spurs for Queen's Park Rangers in 2014 and went on to play for West Bromwich Albion and Italian sides including Genoa and Udinese, before retiring in September 2023.
But the 35-year-old has now made a sensational comeback by joining seventh-tier Harborough, just in time for the club's FA Cup clash with League One Reading on Saturday.
Sandro, who won 17 caps for Brazil, has featured at various levels of the English footballing pyramid but would never have expected to turn out in the Southern League Premier Central.
His debut will come almost eight years after he departed QPR for Turkish side Antalyaspor after making his name in the country over the course of seven years.
The announcement came on Harborough's official X page last night and has already racked up 2,300 likes.
It said: 'New Signing Alert: Following on from our amazing victory in the FA Cup, being drawn away at Reading in the Second Round, we are delighted to break the internet with our latest signing...
'We warmly welcome former Tottenham, West Brom, QPR, Udinese, Genoa, Internacional and Brazilian International Sandro to the #BeeHive!!'
Despite retiring in 2023, the midfielder had been without a club for 12 months, making his final appearance at Portuguese side B SAD in 2022.
His final goal was a dramatic 96th minute equaliser against Estoril Praia in April of the same year.
And Harborough will be hoping for more of the same in their battle against relegation from the Southern Premier Central, with the Leicestershire-based side languishing in 16th with 16 points from 13 matches.
The team's manager Mitch Austin was delighted with his latest signing and told the club website: '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.'
The signing comes just in time for the biggest match in Harborough's history, a clash against Reading for a place in the third round of the FA Cup, after beating Tonbridge Angels 4-1.