Gleidionor Figueiredo Pinto Júnior ( give birth December 30, 1986 ), or just Júnior Negrão ( frequently written as Negão ), is a brazilian professional football player who plays as a striker for chinese Super League club Changchun Yatai. [ 1 ] Having extensively traveled around Brazil and Europe during the first gear part of his career due to frequent loanword spells, Júnior has turned out to be a late blunder since the start of his venture in asian football, thanks to a stripe of successful seasons in Thailand and South Korea. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
Reading: Júnior Negrão
During this lapp period of time, he has gained the nickname “ The Smiling Assassin ”, due to the funny contrast between his silence, kind and positive attitude off the lurch and his impressive goals to game proportion, united with a hard-working and aggressive style of shimmer, on the pitch. [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
early on life [edit ]
Born in Salvador, Bahia, his parents moved to Manaus, Amazonas before he turned his first year of age. For this reason, Júnior has stated that he considers himself a manauara, as he spent there the entirety of his childhood and adolescence. [ 5 ]
Playing career [edit ]
The beginnings [edit ]
After playing in the youth squads of local teams Fast Club and Nacional for four years, Júnior came through the young system of the latter police squad and was inaugural aggregated to the foremost team in 2005. [ 5 ] Although he did n’t register a single appearance in the national league, he quickly became a revelation for the club in the state league Campeonato Amazonense : throughout his first gear couple of seasons as a professional player, Júnior scored 14 goals in 14 matches, including one against Cruzeiro in a national cup match. [ 5 ] His impressive performances for Nacional made him earn a partnership with agent Eduardo Uram ( co-owner of brazilian investing fund Europe Sports Group ) and attracted respective high-profile teams across the nation : [ 6 ] in the end, it was Corinthians that signed the promising center-forward in 2007. however, Júnior ‘s know with the São Paulo -based club turned out to be a bit of a disappointment : he registered his alone appearance for the aged team ( arsenic well as his lone appearance in a national top-tier match to date ) on July 22, 2007, replacing Finazzi at the begin of the second half of a 0–3 home loss against Náutico. As a leave, he got involved in Corinthians ‘ shock season, which culminated in a concluding seventeenth place and the first relegation to the national second-tier in the club ‘s history. Despite all of this, Júnior remembers his year at Corinthians as “ a fantastic experience ” that helped him study “ a wholly different scenario ” and mature as a person. [ 5 ]
2008-2015 : Tombense and the loanword chaos [edit ]
In 2008 Júnior moved to the adjacent state of Minas Gerais to join Tombense, hoping he would get manner more chances to play. [ 5 ] however, since it had inaugural become a fully professional club in 1998, Tombense had been facing a heavy crisis for years : they had never managed to take character in the national league, yet ( due to their broken rate at a federal flat ) and, at the time of Júnior ‘s arrival, they were sustaining their sixth season of inactiveness in fair ten years. [ 7 ] The unstable circumstance of the golf club, together with a miss of patronize from the ESG management, reportedly due to the Brazilian ‘s “ economically unfruitful ” playing position, [ 6 ] enormously affected Júnior ‘s career, as the center-forward began what ended up to be a well long cycle of lend spells across Brazil and Europe. [ 3 ] [ 6 ] During his first pair of years at Tombense, Júnior went on lend four times ( twice a year ), with assorted results, at Madureira ( in Série C ), Belenenses ( in the Portuguese Primeira Liga ) and CRAC ( in Série D ). On the early hand, the brief while at ABC in the second half of 2009 was more satisfy for him : the club finished final in Série B and got relegated, but Júnior found adequate time to get 21 appearances and score ten goals. In the process, he besides scored the first hat-trick of his career in a 6–2 home plate succeed against Brasiliense. interim, Tombense was re-abilitated to compete in the union system of Campeonato Mineiro, [ 7 ] but this did n’t prevent Júnior from being loaned away again. At the start of 2010, while playing for Figueirense, he featured precisely once in Série B, but besides scored five goals in fair four matches of the state league Campeonato Catarinense .
Germinal Beerschot [edit ]
After a few weeks spent training with Germinal Beerschot as a trialist, Júnior got his beginning proper chance to shine in european football, signing a annual lend consider with the belgian side on August 28, 2010. [ 8 ] In his first pre-season game, he scored two goals, one from a spare gripe and the early one being a penalty, frankincense helping his side to a 5–3 succeed against Gent. His official debut in the Jupiler Pro League came on September 11, 2010, when he replaced Bavon Tshibuabua at the 63rd minute of a 1–0 home win against Charleroi. Ten days after, he featured for the first time in the originate eleven and scored a hat-trick, which were besides his inaugural three goals in the belgian top-tier league, although he could n’t help his side avoid a 4–3 away passing against Zulte Waregem. In the end, Germinal Beerschot finished in 13th put, subsequently missing the qualification to the Europa League, and reached the quarter-finals of the national cup, before being eliminated by Cercle Brugge. Júnior closed his spell in Belgium with a complessive sum of 22 appearances ( most of which as a starter ) and eight goals .
Lausanne Sport [edit ]
The following season, Júnior remained in Europe, as he joined swiss side Lausanne-Sport. The brazilian center-forward made his introduction in the Super League on July 30, 2011, replacing Matt Moussilou at the 87th moment of a 2–1 home gain against FC Zürich. In comparison to the previous season, Júnior had less crippled time, being primarily used as a back-up striker both for the aforesaid Moussilou and Jocelyn Roux : however, he kept on gaining have and ended his while in Switzerland with a sum sum of 23 appearances and nine goals .
Return to Brazil [edit ]
At the end of the loanword at Lausanne, in 2012 Júnior returned to Brazil, but soon he was loaned at Guarani, where he played his third gear Série B championship. Nonetheless, in the subsequent couple of years Tombense finally gained enough stability both on and off the slope, and their adept results in the Campeonato Mineiro gifted the club with its first participation to the national football league system ever : plus, their debut year in Série D by chance turned into a success when they beat Brasil de Pelotas in the concluding ( after a penalty shoot-out ) and won a historic promotion to the national third-tier. Júnior played a full lend in both seasons ( specially the former one ), evening if his game clock time was limited to the federal league and both the seasons were split between Tombense and another loans, respectively, at América-RN and América-MG, twice again in Série B. In 2015, the striker played what still constitutes his last season in Brazil, joining Oeste on another lend batch. In entire, Júnior scored four goals and made five assists to help the Barueri -based side stay in the national second-tier, away of featuring regularly in the Série A2 of the Campeonato Paulista. The passing of Júnior ‘s spell at Oeste put an end to a whack amount of eleven consecutive loanword spells, distributed over seven years and four different countries : Brazil, Portugal, Belgium and Switzerland .
2016–2021 : the be active to Asia and personal reincarnation [edit ]
Muangthong United and Pattaya United [edit ]
The follow year, the brazilian agreed the contract terms to sign for Thai side Muangthong United on a permanent wave basis, therefore leaving Tombense after seven years and starting a wholly new experience in another continent. At the time, the clubhouse listed local stars such as Chanathip Songkrasin and Kawin Thamsatchanan in its roll. Júnior joined the club on their tour of several ASEAN countries, and made his debut in a friendly meet against vietnamese side Becamex FC : in the same affair, he headed his first base goal in ( whereas another one was invalidated due to offside ), but Muangthong finally suffered a 2–1 loss. [ 9 ] He actually started his beginning official equal for the club on February 2, 2016, as Muangthong beat malaysian side Johor Darul Ta’zim at the penalty shoot-out and progressed to the trace qualification round to the AFC Champions League group stage. Júnior played for 105 minutes, before being substituted by Teerasil Dangda in the second gear extra-time. unfortunately, he was considered to have failed to make a good impression in that occasion, angstrom well as his two following features for Muangthong : a 3–0 loss against Shanghai SIPG in the third gear round of qualification of the ACL and a 3–1 passing against Buriram United in the Kor Royal Cup. [ 10 ] The club soon decided to arrange a lend spell for Júnior, who joined companion Thai side Pattaya United and left Muangthong, having collected only three appearances. As the lend was performed before the begin of the national league, the brazilian ended up debuting in the contest with Pattaya alternatively of Muangthong, playing in a 2–1 away personnel casualty against Chonburi FC for all the 90 minutes. He scored his first goal in Thailand on March 16, 2016, in a 3–3 home guide against Chiangrai United. He had to wait for two matches before finding the net again, but following his goal against Army United he went on scoring for five back-to-back matches, bagging a brace in three occasions : thanks to Júnior ‘s contributions, Pattaya won every single one of those fixtures. Being featured on the pitch from the front to the spinal column of the pit in the most contribution of the occasions, Júnior kept on scoring regularly, including a hat-trick ( the fourth of his career ) in Pattaya ‘s last fixture of the season, a 4–1 home victory against Nakhon Ratchasima. This room, what initially seemed to be a unmanageable season for the center-forward go steady him score a full total of 20 goals in the Thai League : he consequently joined Dragan Bošković and Heberty as the second peak scorekeeper ex aequo of the contest ( with the foremost one being Cleiton Silva, Júnior ‘s boyfriend brazilian and team-mate at Muangthong just some months before ), and he gave Pattaya ( now defunct and renamed to Samut Prakan City ) a great helping hand to stay adrift in the local top-tier .
Daegu FC [edit ]
After his feat in Thailand, Júnior gained popularity throughout the continent : in 2017, he decided to join south korean team Daegu FC, which had good got promoted to K League 1 again and proceeded to include the striker in its roll aboard boyfriend Brazilians Evandro and Cesinha. [ 11 ]
Read more: Mathieu Valbuena
unfortunately, the adventure with the “ Sky Blues ” had a unmanageable starting signal for the center-forward : picked for the starting eleven in the first bet on of the season against Gwangju, Júnior suffered an injury at the 52th moment of the match and got ruled out for four months. once he got on the pitch again in August, he was initially used a substitute in order to facilitate his wax recover : however, at the third base occasion since his return, Júnior scored the winner in another match against Gwangju, rebounding the ball in the second of the net after Yoon Bo-sang saved his penalty kick. Another goal from the judiciary in a draw against Sangju Sangmu and a winning brace against Pohang Steelers ( with the latter being the first game he played from the beginning since his wound in March ) gave Júnior a regular spot in the team back. During the regular season, he went on to score six times more ( another brace against Ulsan Hyundai, one goal against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and a hat-trick in the last game, against Jeonnam Dragons ), then found the net other two times during the relegation orotund, once more against Pohang ( when he besides assisted Evandro ‘s open goal ) and Gwangju. Having scored 12 goals in only 16 matches since his return, Júnior became Daegu ‘s top scorekeeper and helped the “ Sky Blues ” in their successful fight to stay in the national top-tier, together with team-mates such as Jo Hyeon-woo, Kim Sun-min and Cesinha .
Ulsan Hyundai [edit ]
Following his satisfying spell at Daegu, in 2018 Júnior joined early rivals Ulsan Hyundai on a release transfer. He made his debut with the Kim do-hoon -guided side on February 13, 2018, coming in for Yohei Toyoda at the 76th infinitesimal of a 3–3 away draw against Melbourne Victory in the first game of AFC Champions League ‘s group degree. His beginning match in the K League 1 was actually on March 1, when he replaced colleague foremost timekeeper Oh Se-hun at the 56th minute of a 2–0 away loss against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. primitively supposed to be a back-up striker for teammates Kim Seung-jun and Toyoda, after the injury crisis of the former and the passing of the latter he began to find more and more space in the police squad, scoring his first goal for Ulsan against Pohang Steelers and continuing his mottle for three more matches, against Gangwon, his early team Daegu and FC Seoul : asset, he scored a pair in the AFC Champions League as the “ Horangi ” thrashed Melbourne Victory 6–2. however, during the surveil game ( against Gyeongnam ) he suffered a new injury and got ruled out for a month. As the K League stopped throughout the whole calendar month of June, due to the participation of the confederacy korean home team to the World Cup, Júnior had more time to recover and returned on the pitch angstrom soon as the rival restarted in July : he immediately scored other two goals against Sangju, then had to wait four more games before finding the net again, in two back-to-back matches against Daegu and Jeju United. After another couple of scoreless appearances, on August 15 the brazilian striker started a goal mottle that would last for precisely a month, as he scored against Gyeongnam ( a brace, plus an assist for Kim Seung-jun ), Daegu, Sangju ( two times ), Seoul ( besides two times ), Incheon United and Pohang : in four out of these six occasions, Ulsan won the match. Júnior ‘s impressive state of matter of form continued for the rest of the year, as he added early five goals between regular season and backing round in K League, a well as three goals ( two against Gimhae FC and one against Suwon Samsung Bluewings ) in the Korean FA Cup, which Ulsan finally lost in a double final to Daegu. The “ Horangi ” finally finished the K League 1 in third identify and Júnior gained the same placement in the clear scorer chart, with 22 goals ( Uroš Đerić and chap brazilian Marcão being the alone players to top him ), a well as a spot in the backing ‘s Best xi, together with his team-mate Richard Windbichler. [ 12 ] The following season began quite in the same fashion for the brazilian, immediately scoring a goal in Ulsan ‘s 5–1 home winnings against malaysian side Perak TBG to advance to the AFC Champions League ‘s group stage. then, in his side ‘s first K League 1 bet on of the class against Suwon, he found the net again and provided an assist for Kim In-sung in Ulsan ‘s 2–1 gain. A regular newcomer throughout the whole year ( Joo Min-kyu being the chief back-up striker for him ), Júnior continued performing well in South Korea, where he confessed repeated times to “ feel at dwelling ”. [ 2 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] however, the “ Horangi ” experienced a 2019 full of disappointments : in April, they faced a surprise and premature elimination from the KFA Cup against K3 League slope Daejeon Korail ; after making it through the ACL ‘s group stage ( where Júnior scored two goals, one against Shanghai SIPG and one against Kawasaki Frontale ), they were eliminated in the first phase of the knock-out stage by Suwon ; most notably, they failed to win the league deed at the last gamble of the final examination round. In fact, although Júnior scored a goal, Ulsan finally suffered a 1–4 home loss against Pohang, while their address rivals in the mannequin of Jeonbuk beat Gangwon 1–0, thanks to a finish by Son Jun-ho : although both the teams finished with 79 points, Jeonbuk was declared winner due to a better goal deviation. Anyhow, thanks to his 19 goals Júnior ended up being the second gear exceed scorer of the league ( the first one being Adam Taggart ) : furthermore, he was included in the competition ‘s Best eleven again, this fourth dimension alongside his team-mate Kim Tae-hwan. [ 13 ] The brazilian and Ulsan prepared for the 2020 temper hoping they would find redemption from their past losses : unfortunately, the “ Horangi ” managed to play precisely one game, a 1–1 home draw against FC Tokyo in the AFC Champions League ‘s group stage ( where Júnior played for all of the 90 minutes without scoring ) before all of the national, continental and external competitions were suspended and/or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [ 4 ] Despite having faced a unmanageable site during the first months of 2020, South Korea was the first state in the world to restart national competitions : [ 4 ] on May 9, 2020, just one day after the couple between Jeonbuk and Suwon marked the official resume both of K League and world football, [ 14 ] [ 15 ] Ulsan made his seasonal debut with a 4–0 home acquire against Sangju Sangmu, with Júnior scoring two goals ( one of which on a punishment recoil ) and assisting one for Lee Sang-heon. [ 16 ] The Brazilian ‘s performance kickstarted one of the most successful seasons of his life. [ 2 ] [ 6 ] In the first ten games of K League 1, the brazilian scored twelve goals, including braces against Sangju and Suwon and a hat-trick against Incheon. then, he proceeded to go on a finish stripe of four games, netting braces against his erstwhile club Daegu and Sangju again, deoxyadenosine monophosphate good as individual goals against Gangwon and Busan IPark. As the most region of the national and continental competitions around the globe became operative again alone between June and July, curtly after the first half of the year Júnior found himself to be the temp top scorer in the world, gaining external cover from the press and being praised in his fatherland country as “O artilheiro do mundo” ( literally, “ the universe ‘s top bomber ” in Portuguese ). [ 2 ] [ 4 ] unfortunately, the striker ‘s odd form inactive was n’t sufficient to bring more luck to Ulsan : at the startle of November, the “ Horangi ” had missed out on both the K League title ( again ) and the KFA Cup in prefer of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, having lost every peer but one ( the beginning leg of the doubling cup final, where Júnior scored a goal ) against the “ green Warriors ”. At least, the Brazilian could add to his personal achievements his third inclusion body in a rowing in K League 1 ‘s Best xi, two prizes as Player of the Month and, ultimately, the title of lead scorer : with 26 goals in 27 games, he besides set a new record for the best “ goals to game ” proportion ( 0.96 ) of any player in the national league ‘s history. [ 2 ] [ 6 ] [ 17 ] [ 18 ] then, Júnior flew with the “ Horangi ” to Qatar to reach the centralized venues that would host all the remaining games of the group stage and the hard phase of the AFC Champions League. The team won all of the five remaining matches of their group against FC Tokyo, Shanghai Shenhua and Perth Glory, with Júnior scoring a goal in each one of the games against the australian side ( besides adding an assist for Kim In-sung in the second one ). then, they beat melbourne Victory, Beijing Sinobo Guoan and Vissel Kobe to make it through the hard phase and reach the final, with the brazilian striker scoring a brace against the chinese english and sending the decisive penalty in the bet on of the net to close the extra meter against the japanese slope. finally, on 19 December 2020, Ulsan faced Persepolis in the AFC Champions League Final : the iranian side initially took the moderate thanks to Mehdi Abdi, but then Júnior scored one penalty for half ( the inaugural one being rebounded in the bet on of the net, after Hamed Lak saved the Brazilian ‘s first try ), therefore resulting one of the key members in the 2–1 win over Persepolis and attendant victory of the continental competition ( which marked Ulsan ‘s first base success in Asia since 2012 ). [ 2 ] [ 19 ] As a consequence, to his performances, the center-forward was included in the Champions League ‘s Best xi : [ 20 ] plus, thanks to his seven goals he became the top scorekeeper of the rival, together with Abderrazak Hamdallah, even though the official award went to the Moroccan striker, since he played fewer minutes throughout the unharmed rival. [ 21 ] [ 22 ] furthermore, Júnior ‘s marvelous 2020 rewarded him as the third Best Footballer in the continent of the year, according to Fox Sports Asia ( only Sardar Azmoun and Son Heung-min topped him ), [ 23 ] a well as the fifth most fecund striker of the year, behind only the likes of Erling Haaland, Romelu Lukaku, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski. [ 2 ] [ 24 ] After four years full of achievements, the Brazilian ‘s journey in South Korea came to an end on January 28, 2021 : on that day, Ulsan published Júnior ‘s official farewell lecture on their YouTube channel, as he announced that the club and him agreed to let his contract run out, observing that he “ wanted and needed to change ”, even though he stressed that “ he would constantly support the team ”. [ 25 ] Press sources indicated new coach Hong Myung-Bo ‘s design to assemble a younger team as one of the possible reasons for the Brazilian ‘s departure. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] anyhow, with his deviation from the asian country Júnior closed the most successful time period of his career to date : in 110 games with Daegu FC and Ulsan Hyundai, he scored a sum sum of 79 goals ( 12 in 16 games for the former team, 67 in 94 games for the latter ) and provided nine assists ; he was included in the league ‘s Best XI thrice in a row ; he won three titles as Player of the Month, one as the league ‘s top Scorer and one AFC Champions League title. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 6 ]
2021- : A new phase [edit ]
Changchun Yatai [edit ]
On February 24, 2021, previous speculations about Júnior ‘s possible transfer to Chinese team Changchun Yatai were rise properly, [ 3 ] as the club formally announced the sign of the center-forward. [ 1 ] Júnior subsequently made his debut for Changchun on April 22, 2021, starting and scoring a finish in a 2–1 away win against dalian Pro. In total, the brazilian scored 11 goals in 12 appearances during the regular season of the taiwanese Super League, as Changchun topped their group ( together with Shanghai Port ) and qualified for the championship stage. [ 26 ]
personal life [edit ]
Júnior is a christian, and he is frequently seen pointing fingers to the sky as a shape of prayer after scoring a finish. [ 27 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ] Júnior is married and he has two daughters, named Anna Julia and Isabella. [ 27 ] [ 28 ] He stated he would like to play for Bahia as his end team before retirement : being one of the most representative clubs of his birthplace ( together with Vitória ), he said that would give him the opportunity to honor the bequest of his parents, specially his beget. [ 5 ]
career statistics [edit ]
- As of 17 May 2021[30][31]
Honours [edit ]
Ulsan Hyundai
Individual