Brazilian footballer (born 1986)
Gleidionor Figueiredo Pinto Júnior (born 30 December 1986), or simply Júnior Negrão (often written as Negão), is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward for China League One club Sichuan Jiuniu.
Having extensively traveled around Brazil and Europe during the first part of his career due to frequent loan spells, Júnior has turned out to be a late bloomer since the start of his adventure in Asian football, thanks to a streak of successful seasons in Thailand and South Korea.
During this same period of time, he has gained the nickname "The Smiling Assassin", due to the funny contrast between his quiet, kind and positive attitude off the pitch and his impressive goals to game ratio, united with a hard-working and aggressive style of play, on the pitch.
Early life.
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.
Career.
Early career.
After playing in the youth squads of local teams Fast Club and Nacional for four years, Júnior came through the youth system of the latter squad and was first aggregated to the first team in 2005. Although he didn't register a single appearance in the national league, he rapidly became a revelation for the club in the state league Campeonato Amazonense: throughout his first couple of seasons as a professional player, Júnior scored 14 goals in 14 matches, including one against Cruzeiro in a national cup match.
His impressive performances for Nacional made him earn a partnership with agent Eduardo Uram (co-owner of Brazilian investment fund Europe Sports Group) and attracted several high-profile teams across the nation: in the end, it was Corinthians that signed the promising center-forward in 2007. However, Júnior's experience with the São Paulo-based club turned out to be a bit of a disappointment: he registered his only appearance for the senior team (as well as his only appearance in a national top-tier match to date) on 22 July 2007, replacing Finazzi at the start of the second half of a 0–3 home loss against Náutico. As a result, he got involved in Corinthians' shocking season, which culminated in a final 17th 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 wonderful experience" that helped him study "a totally different scenario" and mature as a person.
Tombense and loans.
In 2008 Júnior moved to the adjacent state of Minas Gerais to join Tombense, hoping he would get way more chances to play. However, since it had first become a fully professional club in 1998, Tombense had been facing a heavy crisis for years: they had never managed to take part in the national league, yet (due to their low rate at a federal level) and, at the time of Júnior's arrival, they were sustaining their sixth season of inactivity in just ten years. The unstable condition of the club, together with a lack of support from the ESG management, reportedly due to the Brazilian's "economically unfruitful" playing position, hugely affected Júnior's career, as the center-forward began what ended up to be a considerably long cycle of loan spells across Brazil and Europe.
During his first couple of years at Tombense, Júnior went on loan four times (twice a year), with mixed results, at Madureira (in Série C), Belenenses (in the Portuguese Primeira Liga) and CRAC (in Série D). On the other hand, the brief spell at ABC in the second half of 2009 was more satisfying for him: the club finished last in Série B and got relegated, but Júnior found enough time to get 21 appearances and score ten goals. In the process, he also scored the first hat-trick of his career in a 6–2 home win against Brasiliense.
Meanwhile, Tombense was re-abilitated to compete in the federal system of Campeonato Mineiro, but this didn't prevent Júnior from being loaned away again. At the start of 2010, while playing for Figueirense, he featured just once in Série B, but also scored five goals in just four matches of the state league Campeonato Catarinense.
Germinal Beerschot.
After a few weeks spent training with Germinal Beerschot as a trialist, Júnior got his first proper chance to shine in European football, signing a one-year loan deal with the Belgian side on 28 August 2010. In his first pre-season game, he scored two goals, one from a free kick and the other one being a penalty, thus helping his side to a 5–3 win against Gent.
His official debut in the Jupiler Pro League came on 11 September 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 starting XI and scored a hat-trick, which were also his first three goals in the Belgian top-tier league, although he could not help his side avoid a 4–3 away loss against Zulte Waregem.
In the end, Germinal Beerschot finished in 13th place, 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 total number of 22 appearances (most of which as a starter) and eight goals.
Lausanne Sport.
The following season, Júnior remained in Europe, as he joined Swiss side Lausanne-Sport. The Brazilian center-forward made his debut in the Super League on 30 July 2011, replacing Matt Moussilou at the 87th minute of a 2–1 home win against FC Zürich.
In comparison to the previous season, Júnior had less game time, being primarily used as a back-up striker both for the aforementioned Moussilou and Jocelyn Roux: nevertheless, he kept on gaining experience and ended his spell in Switzerland with a total number of 23 appearances and nine goals.
Return to Brazil.
At the end of the loan at Lausanne, in 2012 Júnior returned to Brazil, but soon he was loaned at Guarani, where he played his third Série B championship. Nonetheless, in the subsequent couple of years Tombense finally gained enough stability both on and off the pitch, and their good 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 unexpectedly turned into a success when they beat Brasil de Pelotas in the final (after a penalty shoot-out) and won a historic promotion to the national third-tier.
Júnior played a good contribute in both seasons (especially the former one), even if his game 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 loan deal. In total, Júnior scored four goals and made five assists to help the Barueri-based side remain in the national second-tier, aside of featuring regularly in the Série A2 of the Campeonato Paulista.
The expiration of Júnior's spell at Oeste put an end to a whopping number of eleven consecutive loan spells, distributed over seven years and four different countries: Brazil, Portugal, Belgium and Switzerland.
Muangthong United and Pattaya United.
The following year, the Brazilian agreed the contract terms to sign for Thai side Muangthong United on a permanent basis, thus leaving Tombense after seven years and starting a whole new experience in another continent. At the time, the club listed local stars such as Chanathip Songkrasin and Kawin Thamsatchanan in its roster. Júnior joined the club on their tour of several ASEAN countries, and made his debut in a friendly match against Vietnamese side Becamex FC: in the same occasion, he headed his first goal in (whereas another one was invalidated due to offside), but Muangthong eventually suffered a 2–1 loss.
He actually started his first official match for the club on 2 February 2016, as Muangthong beat Malaysian side Johor Darul Ta'zim at the penalty shoot-out and progressed to the following qualification round to the AFC Champions League group stage. Júnior played for 105 minutes, before being substituted by Teerasil Dangda in the second extra-time. Unfortunately, he was considered to have failed to make a good impression in that occasion, as well as his two following features for Muangthong: a 3–0 loss against Shanghai SIPG in the third round of qualification of the ACL and a 3–1 loss against Buriram United in the Kor Royal Cup.
The club soon decided to arrange a loan spell for Júnior, who joined fellow Thai side Pattaya United and left Muangthong, having collected only three appearances. As the loan was performed before the start of the national league, the Brazilian ended up debuting in the competition with Pattaya instead of Muangthong, playing in a 2–1 away loss against Chonburi FC for all the 90 minutes. He scored his first goal in Thailand on 16 March 2016, in a 3–3 home draw 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 consecutive 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 back of the match in the most part 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 way, what initially seemed to be a difficult season for the center-forward saw him score a total number of 20 goals in the Thai League: he consequently joined Dragan Bošković and Heberty as the second top scorer "ex aequo" of the competition (with the first one being Cleiton Silva, Júnior's fellow 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 afloat in the local top-tier.
Daegu FC.
After his exploit in Thailand, Júnior gained popularity throughout the continent: in 2017, he decided to join South Korean team Daegu FC, which had just got promoted to K League 1 again and proceeded to include the striker in its roster alongside fellow Brazilians Evandro and Cesinha.
Unfortunately, the adventure with the "Sky Blues" had a difficult start for the center-forward: picked for the starting XI in the first game of the season against Gwangju, Júnior suffered an injury at the 52nd minute 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 full recover: however, at the third occasion since his return, Júnior scored the winner in another match against Gwangju, rebounding the ball in the back of the net after Yoon Bo-sang saved his penalty kick.
Another goal from the bench in a draw against Sangju Sangmu and a winning brace against Pohang Steelers (with the latter being the first game he played from the start since his injury 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 round, once more against Pohang (when he also assisted Evandro's opening goal) and Gwangju.
Having scored 12 goals in only 16 matches since his return, Júnior became Daegu's top scorer 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.
Following his satisfying spell at Daegu, in 2018 Júnior joined former rivals Ulsan Hyundai on a free transfer. He made his debut with the Kim do-hoon-guided side on 13 February 2018, coming in for Yohei Toyoda at the 76th minute of a 3–3 away draw against Melbourne Victory in the first game of AFC Champions League's group stage. His first match in the K League 1 was actually on 1 March, when he replaced fellow first timer Oh Se-hun at the 56th minute of