Diego de Souza Andrade

Diego de Souza Andrade (born 17 June 1985), known as Diego Souza, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or a forward for Brazilian Série A club Grêmio.

Career

Fluminense

Diego Souza began playing club football for Fluminense in the Brazilian League where he quickly impressed and earned a move to Europe.

Benfica and loans

Benfica signed him from Fluminense and loaned to Flamengo. He returned to Benfica in 2006–07 Primeira Liga but only appeared on 19 September 2006 as unused bench. In 2007, he went on loan to Grêmio. He was influential at Grêmio scoring a handful of goals most notably a set-piece against Santos FC as they made the Copa Libertadores final losing out to Boca Juniors.

Palmeiras

In 2008, he moved to Palmeiras (and partner) for €3.75M total fee. He signed a contract until December 2011. Co-currently, along with Lenny, Fluminense transferred its shares on both players' economic rights to Desportivo Brasil (owned by Traffic Group) as part of the deal, made Fluminense gained a profit of R$ 1,320 thousand and R$1,500 thousand respectively. Both players were signed by Palmeiras as part of R$40 million partnership with Traffic, which Palmeiras only owned 10~20% of the rights of Diego.

On 18 April 2009, he received a red card after an argument with Domingos during the state semi finals match against Santos. He later took Domingos down after coming back to the field.

On 29 November 2009, he scored a magnificent goal against Atlético Mineiro from the mid-field area. At the same year in the Série A, Diego Souza helped Palmeiras lead until the end, but lost the title in the last rounds of the tournament.

Atlético Mineiro

On 30 June 2010, Clube Atlético Mineiro's president Alexandre Kalil announced that Diego Souza had signed a contract. After the transaction, Mineiro owned 70% and 30% owned by Traffic, and costed Atlético Mineiro a reported R$6.6 million (2.2M€).

Vasco

The Atlético Mineiro number 10 was sold to Vasco for about $1.2 million.(0.9M€) On 20 March, Diego Souza made his debut for the team in the match against a local rival Botafogo. He is remembered scoring the first goal in the 2x0 victory. On 8 June 2011 Diego Souza became a winner of the Brazilian Cup with Vasco da Gama, having his best performance in the Brazil Cup in the game Avai Vasco 0x2 in the semi-final of this competition. Soon after winning the Cup of Brazil, Diego Souza was placed on the bench due to poor performances. Nevertheless, he returned to the starting line-up and did a great performance against Atlético Mineiro, scoring two goals in the away 2x1 victory. In the 24th round of the Brasileirão 2011 has an excellent performance against Gremio (4x0) scoring onr of the goals. He finished with Vasco as a runner-up of the Brasileirão.

Al Ittihad

On 10 July 2012, he was signed by Saudi Professional League club Al-Ittihad Jeddah on a 3-year contract. On 6 August, he started an impressive game. His first shot ever was in the crossbar, he assisted 3 goals and one of them was an own goal. He helped to a 3–0 victory against Al-Ettifaq.

Metalist Kharkiv

In July 2013, Diego Souza moved to Metalist Kharkiv in Ukraine. For his transfer Metalist paid four million €. In January 2014, Diego wanted to return to Brazil to escape the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine. A loan deal with Sport Club do Recife was set in September 2014.

São Paulo

After a successful spell playing for Sport Recife, Souza signed, on 7 January 2018, with São Paulo, for R$10 million. On 24 January 2018, he netted for the first time wearing Tricolor kit: the goal that opened the victory against Mirassol by 2-0, in a game valid for São Paulo State League.

Botafogo

After a weak start for São Paulo in 2019, Diego Souza lost his initial prestige, along with valuable experienced players like Nenê, making himself negotiable for the club. His recent club Sport Recife made an approach, but it was Botafogo who grabbed the player's interest, being closer to home and competing in the top tier of Brazilian football. Diego Souza arrived at Botafogo for a loan deal until the end of 2019, with a buying option in the contract.

Return to Grêmio

In January 28, 2020, Grêmio announced the return of Diego Souza on a free transfer. He signed a one-year contract.

International career

Diego was part of the Brazil U-23 side. Diego was in the winning squad of Brazil U-17 at the 2001 South American Under 17 Football Championship in Peru. He played twice in 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship.

Diego Souza was called to play for Brazil national football team, in a game against Chile. He made his debut against the Bolivia national football team on 11 October 2009.

Souza scored his first international goal after eleven seconds, before scoring another in injury-time in a 4-0 win over Australia in a June 2017 friendly.

Career statistics

As of 27 November 2019

International

As of 10 November 2017

International goals

Scores and results list Brazil's goal tally first.

Honours

Club

Fluminense

• Rio de Janeiro State League: 2005

Flamengo

• Copa do Brasil: 2006

Grêmio

• Campeonato Gaúcho: 2007

Palmeiras

• Campeonato Paulista: 2008

Vasco da Gama

• Copa do Brasil: 2011

Sport

• Campeonato Pernambucano: 2017

International

• Superclásico de las Américas: 2011

Individual

• Campeonato Brasileiro Série A Team of the Year: 2008, 2009, 2011
• Campeonato Brasileiro Série A Best Player: 2009
• Campeonato Brasileiro Série A Top Goalscorer: 2016