Brazilian Emerson, who returns to the Riverside tonight, could have been idolised on Teesside as a footballing magician. Instead, the only magic the fans remember him for are his regular vanishing acts as Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson discovered.

SOMETHING strange happened yesterday as the Xanthi squad prepared to leave Greece ahead of this evening's UEFA Cup clash at the Riverside. Brazilian midfielder Emerson willingly got on a plane and flew to Middlesbrough - as fans of the club know only to well, things have not always been so simple in the past.

As the globalisation of football continues apace and foreign players flock to the Premiership in ever-increasing numbers, it is easy to forget a time when overseas investment inevitably meant risk.

The risk of a multi-million pound asset failing to adapt to the pace and power of the English game. The risk of a previously confident ball-player crumbling in the face of some distinctly Anglo-Saxon tackling. Or, as in the case of Emerson, the risk of an unsettled South American disappearing without trace before repeating the trick every time he returned to his homeland.

"Emerson let himself and his team-mates down," admitted Bryan Robson, who was Middlesbrough manager at the time. "I would have liked it if things had gone more smoothly with him. There was room for improvement with the way he handled situations with the club.

"People keep telling me that not turning up on time is a Brazilian thing. Emerson would go home for a certain time and then take an extra week off."

Or occasionally, an extra fortnight. A player hailed as a midfield magician when he made a £4m move from Porto in May 1996 turned out to be more of an enterprising escapologist.

Emerson went missing on three separate occasions during his first season on Teesside, before performing a fourth vanishing act prior to his eventual departure to Tenerife.

The problem was an inability to settle, with the alien English conditions combining with a tenuous grasp of the language to produce a powerful sense of isolation and homesickness in both Emerson and his 20-year-old wife, Andrea.

"When we went out to the local clubs, many of the men were too drunk to dance," Emerson's wife is said to have claimed following his hasty departure.

"The moment I saw Middlesbrough I felt it was a strange, terrible place. I had never seen anything quite like it. In Rio, everyone was on the beach - in Middlesbrough, it always rained."

As the situation worsened and Emerson vowed he would rather give up football than return to the Riverside, Robson found himself in an increasingly incongruous position.

Should he cut his losses and cave in to player-power or stand firm as the club careered headlong towards the Football League.

Initially, he opted for the latter. "A player cannot kick up a fuss and walk away from the club," claimed the current West Brom boss. "Contracts are to be honoured and not just thrown away. It is not as if Emerson is in slavery."

Yet the problems continued to mount. Despite boasting a team that included the prodigious talents of Juninho, Ravanelli and Emerson, Middlesbrough dropped out of the Premiership.

Eventually, Emerson was allowed to leave, moving to sunny Spain for £4.2m and accusing chief executive Keith Lamb of treating him "like a manual labourer" in a passionate parting shot.

His return this evening will stir mixed emotions for, as well as being an unreliable traveller, the all-action midfielder was also a fantastic footballer.

His 60 Middlesbrough appearances brought seven goals and included one dazzling display that particularly caught the eye of Steve McClaren.

"My abiding memory of Emerson comes from when I was at Derby County," said the current Boro boss. "We came here to play, we were in the middle of a really good run, and we got beat 6-1.

"Emerson ran the show. He was at the back, he was at the front, he was everywhere. You couldn't knock him off the ball.

"He's my type of midfield player. In many ways, he's an old-fashioned type of player because he can run a game by himself. He's not dissimilar to (Fabio) Rochemback and that's why we've just brought him in.

"I thought he was a great signing from Bryan Robson - I would have done exactly the same if I was in his shoes."

Perhaps, in the current climate of footballing multi-culturalism, McClaren might also have had more of a chance of keeping him happy.

While Middlesbrough hardly shied away from making overseas signings under Robson, the prevailing trend at the time was still for foreigners to arrive in a blaze of glory before leaving amid recrimination and strife.

Emerson went on to play for Tenerife, Deportivo La Coruna, Atletico Madrid and Rangers before joining Xanthi.

His best years should have been with Middlesbrough. Instead he is best remembered for the times when he was not even there.

Read more about Middlesbrough here.