PUEBLO, Colo. – Alan and Alisson de Souza would spend many days as kids going up and down the streets of Taubate, Brazil, looking for work.
The Souza twins were only 12 years old when they began to take their horse and attach a small carriage to him. Monday through Saturday, the two brothers would look for anything to haul – trash, televisions, furniture, anything that someone would need to get rid of – in hopes of making a few Brazilian Reals.
Some days they could make up to 70 Reals – which is roughly $16 here in the United States – or sometimes they would go home empty-handed.
“We come from a poor family and we never had much,” Alan said during the 2019 PBR World Finals with the help of Guilherme Marchi translating. “We worked all around the city. People would pay us, and we would haul stuff, including garbage and junk. We had to walk on our own to get here.”
Roughly 14 years later, and the twins were in Las Vegas together, competing at the PBR World Finals after achieving the beginning treasures of their American dream.
“I don’t believe it,” Alan said. “We lived in the city, but also on a small ranch with a little bit of cattle. We had calves. We always wanted to get on those calves and ride. Since we were kids, we had a dream to be a bull rider.”
Alan did not just compete at the 2019 PBR World Finals. Rather, he erupted for a third-place finish, nearly winning the World Finals event title only a month after earning himself a spot in the Top 35 of the world standings courtesy of a win at the Minneapolis Invitational.
The 26-year-old won a career-best $126,166.67 at the World Finals by going 5-for-6. Alan won $185,467.36 this season overall and finished 12th in the final PBR world standings despite competing in only seven UTB events.
Alisson has earned $251,848.23 since moving to the United States last year and concluded 2019 a career-best 17th in the world standings.
The identical twins remain so grateful for the opportunity to pursue their dreams in America, Alan says.
“Sometimes I don’t believe we are here,” Alan said. “We came from nowhere and today we are here in the United States winning a lot of money. We are so grateful and we are so blessed from this life.”
Alan is one of 37 riders set to compete this weekend at the 2019 PBR Brazil Finals in Brasilia, Brazil. One rider can earn up to 2,000 national points by winning every round and the event average. Therefore, any of the 37 competitors can walk out of Nilson Nelson Gymnasium as the 2019 PBR Brazil champion.
Fans can watch the PBR Brazil Finals live on RidePass on Nov. 30 at 7 p.m. ET.
The 2019 PBR Brazil championship will be even more unpredictable with No. 1 rider Leandro Machado unable to compete because of injuries sustained at the 2019 PBR World Finals. Machado suffered multiple broken ribs and a collapsed lung when Nailed stepped on him during Round 5. Machado was released from the hospital a few days later and is currently in Texas, but he has yet to be cleared to fly back home to Brazil.
Machado holds a 307.5-point lead on No. 2 Caic Cassio Carvalho. No. 3 Fabricio Gomes (-584.17), No. 4 Romario Leite (-735), No. 5 Rafael Dos Santos (-765) and No. 5 Joao Lucas (-765) are other top contenders for the Brazilian title.
Alan is ranked No. 8 in the PBR Brazil standings, 859.17 points behind Machado.
A perfect PBR Brazil Finals may be what it takes for Souza to surpass Machado and the other six competitors in front of him.
Therefore, Alan will need to mimic his performance from the 2019 World Finals.
Alan was close to perfect at T-Mobile Arena. He began the Finals with a 79.25-point ride on Mad Child and turned down a re-ride option. He then covered Texas Comfort Air’s First Blood for 86.5 points and Space Force for 87.75 points. Bulls Eye bested him in 4.68 seconds in Round 4, and he would turn down a re-ride option in Round 5 (39.5 points on Oil Slick) after straining both of his groins.
The injury did not slow Souza down in the championship round as he rode Magic Poison for a career-high 90.5 points.
Alisson then stormed the dirt to give his brother a hug on top of the Can Am cage.
Three-time World Champion Silvano Alves first met the Souza twins a few years ago in Barretos before getting to know them some more at the 2017 event in Divinopolis.
The Souzas often come over to Alves ranch in Decatur, Texas, to get on practice bulls and hang out.
Alves has been impressed by both of them.
“I had heard about both of them,” Alves said. “Alan has a lot of potential. He has a lot of adrenaline. He loves to ride practice bulls every week, two or three times a week. If he has bulls, he can ride every day.
“So does Alisson. One pushes the other and the other pushes him. If one messes up, the other one will call him on the phone or tell him.”
Alan finished 2019 14-for-23 (60.87%) with a victory and one Top-5 finish. He finished second in the Rookie of the Year race to Dalton Kasel. Similar to Kasel (10), Alan competed in a limited amount of premier series events (seven) in 2019 and still finished in the top tier of the world standings.
2008 World Champion and Team Brazil Global Cup coach Guilherme Marchi has had his eyes on the Souza twins as possible options for the 2020 WinStar World Casino and Resort Global Cup USA, presented by Monster Energy, and has much to think about in the upcoming weeks as he rounds out his roster.
So far Marchi has selected 2018 World Champion Kaique Pacheco, 2017 World Finals event winner Jose Vitor Leme and 2015 PBR Brazil champion Luciano de Castro.
Marchi saw firsthand on the back of the chutes in Vegas just how strong Alan looked at the World Finals.
Marchi says he is considering Alan and Alisson for his squad that will hit the dirt at AT&T Stadium on Feb. 15-16.
“High scores are important,” Marchi said in Vegas. “That is what I am looking for. I have a couple of guys I am thinking about. Those twin guys ride really strong.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko