His story is part of MLS lore. His identity has been shrouded in mystery for a quarter century. His absence is the one gap in this website's annals.

Not anymore.

First, let's re-tell the story. Back in 1996, the MetroStars drafted two Brazilians in MLS's first-ever supplemental draft: Juninho and Tulio. Some thought that this was done by mistake, as Metro thought they were taking Middlesbrough's Juninho and Botafogo's Tulio: one a magnificent midfielder, the other a high-scoring striker, both Brazilian internationals. While we wouldn't put anything past Charlie Stillitano, that does not seem to be the case. There really were a midfielder named Juninho and a striker named Tulio, but a different Juninho and a different Tulio. They were supposed up-and-comers from Brazil who MLS decided to take a chance on. The former's identity was discovered a while back: Edivaldo Sarafim da Silva, who ended up playing for the Puerto Rico Islanders and the Rochester Rhinos in the 2000s. Tulio? Well, we finally found Tulio.

Listed at 5'9" and 155 lbs, and hailing from Uberlandia, Minas Gerais, our Tulio was born on February 7, 1976, with his former team listed as XV de Piracicaba. We knew all of that before, but now we know his full name, as reported in a 1997 article on the website of Folha de Sao Paulo. It's Tulio Carlos Alves, as the article compares him to the other Tulio, Tulio Humberto Pereira da Costa. While the other Tulio made R$ 150,000 per month (at the time, the Brazilian real was about equal to a US dollar) playing for Corinthians, our Tulio made R$ 2,000 (was that more than he would have been paid in MLS?) playing for Rio Branco. The other Tulio took a helicopter to games. Our Tulio drove teammates in a beat-up Chevy Monza.

Our Tulio made the Metro preseason in Florida, but neither he nor Juninho made the opening roster. It would have been hard to justify either a spot with MLS's tight foreign player policy. According to Tulio, he was dropped when the team started to negotiate with Colombian international Freddy Rincon. Rincon eventually signed in Brazil, and Tulio supposedly got a call from Metro, but had already signed with a local team. Metro signed Ruben Dario Hernandez instead, and it all worked out wonderfully!

We have no idea what happened to our Tulio after 1997, but at least the mystery has been solved...