QPR stunned Premier League with shock Brazilian signing – He was supposed to be Loftus Road great | OneFootball

Having been brought in as a star, Julio Cesar's time in the Premier League did not go well with Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road.

In the summer of 2012, Queens Park Rangers looked to once again spend big and be ambitious in the Premier League with Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes having completed a takeover of the club in August 2011.

QPR had managed to get themselves out of the Championship in the 2010/11 campaign under the management of Neil Warnock but he left the club in January after a busy summer window with Fernandes keen to spend QPR’s way out of trouble.

Mark Hughes came in mid-way through the 2011/12 season to replace Warnock and he ensured they avoided relegation on the final day of the campaign, despite their famous 3-2 loss to Manchester City, with a remarkable run of form at Loftus Road whereby they won their final five home games of the season against Liverpool, Arsenal, Swansea City, Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City.

With Fernandes able to oversee his first full summer transfer window as QPR owner and chairman, the R’s opted to bring in some big names, with Ryan Nelsen, Andy Johnson and Rob Green all joining on free transfers before the arrivals of the likes of Park Ji-sung and Jose Bosingwa.

Then, just a couple of days before the end of the 2012 summer transfer window, QPR managed to complete the surprise signing of Brazil international goalkeeper Julio Cesar from Internazionale.

Julio Cesar’s journey to QPR

Julio Cesar was Inter’s goalkeeper as they won the treble in the 2009/10 campaign, but just two years later he had opted for a move to a team that had only just avoided relegation to the Championship.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Julio Cesar began his career with Flamengo and made 172 appearances for the club before a creative move to Chievo Verona in January 2005, which didn’t see him play for Chievo, but did allow him to join Inter less than six months later.

Whilst at Inter, he made 300 appearances for the Nerazzurri and won five Serie A titles, three Coppa Italia trophies, the Supercoppa Italiana on four occasions, as well as the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup.

Swapping San Siro for Loftus Road, the keeper - who would finish his career with 87 caps for his national side, Brazil - didn’t cover himself in glory during his stint in West London, being dropped twice to the bench during the season as the Hoops plummeted down to the Championship.

He managed just 24 Premier League appearances as QPR finished rock-bottom in the Premier League, albeit he did remain as Brazil’s first-choice goalkeeper as the Selecao won that summer’s 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup.

From legend at Inter to frozen out at QPR

In the 2013/14 season, Harry Redknapp and the club opted to freeze Julio Cesar out of the club, and he didn’t play for them at all in a Championship season that resulted in them winning promotion via the play-offs with a late Bobby Zamora winner to defeat Derby County at Wembley Stadium.

The Brazilian did make an appearance for QPR in a 4-0 hammering at the hands of Everton at Goodison Park in the third round of the FA Cup in early January before making a loan move to Major League Soccer side Toronto.

He eventually departed QPR in the summer of 2014 with Cesar saying he didn’t play for the R’s due to “contractual problems” but that he was “happy” to have moved on from the club ahead of playing in goal for the host nation at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.