A STATUE unveiled to the man credited with introducing football to Brazil features a little piece of East Renfrewshire.

The statue, in Rio de Janeiro, features Tom Donohoe, from Busby, who took the beautiful game to Brazil in the late 1800s.

Researchers behind plans for the statue turned to East Renfrewshire Council for help to find out more about Donohue.

And a credit to the council's local studies librarian, Amanda Robb, has been included on the statue as a thank you.

Copies of photos from the council's heritage collection have also been included in a piece of artwork created to mark the opening of the statue.

Tom Donohoe was born in 1863 and worked as a dyer in Busby Printworks. In 1892 he took a job with a Brazilian calico printing company which was about to open a new factory in Bangu, a small town near Rio.

A keen football player, Donohoe missed his beloved sport, so within two years he had imported some equipment and persuaded factory workers in the industrial town to play in a game said to be Brazil's football match, in April 1894.