Juninho Pernambucano Spanish Footballer From Recife

Early life

Antônio Augusto Ribeiro Reis Júnior, known as Juninho Pernambucano, was born on 30 January 1975 in Recife. He began his professional career at Sport Recife, his hometown club, and won two regional titles there. According to his own account, he started practising free kicks at the age of thirteen, copying the way the ball moved when struck by Marcelinho of Corinthians, and he said he mastered the technique after moving to France.

Career

In 1995 Juninho joined Vasco da Gama, and the six years that followed made him a favourite with the club's supporters, who gave him the nickname Reizinho de São Januário, a reference to the club's stadium. He played alongside Romário, Edmundo and Juninho Paulista, and with Vasco he won the Brazilian Championship in 1997 and 2000, the Copa Libertadores in 1998, the Campeonato Carioca in 1998, the Rio-São Paulo Tournament in 1999 and the Copa Mercosur in 2000. In 2000 he also received the Bola de Prata, a Brazilian award given by the magazine Placar. A free kick he scored against River Plate in the 1998 Libertadores is still sung about by Vasco fans, as it took the club to the final against Barcelona of Guayaquil. In 2001 he obtained a court injunction that made him a free agent and allowed him to leave.

He then moved to Olympique Lyonnais, a club that had never won the French title before his arrival. Lyon won the league in each of his first seven seasons there, from 2001-02 to 2007-08. Juninho became known at Lyon for the accuracy and variety of his set pieces and for his passing, and manager Gérard Houllier made him captain. He scored 100 goals for the club in 343 official matches, and he reached that mark in his final game, converting a penalty against Caen. He also became Lyon's leading scorer in the Champions League, with 18 goals, and the club reached the quarter-finals three times during his spell. His many free kicks included long-range goals against Bayern Munich in the 2003-04 Champions League, and against Ajaccio, Barcelona, Nice and Marseille. In May 2009, Lyon's chairman Jean-Michel Aulas announced that the club had accepted Juninho's request to leave at the end of the season, although a year remained on his contract.

In June 2009 he signed for Al-Gharafa of Qatar on a two-year contract worth 2.5 million euros. As captain in his first season, he led the team to a league, Stars Cup and Crown Prince Cup treble and was named Qatar Football Association Player of the Year for 2010. He scored 25 goals in 66 games for the club. In April 2011 he returned to Vasco, scoring from a free kick on his first appearance back, and in July 2012 he extended his contract with the club. He then signed with the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer in December 2012, played 13 games and made four assists before the club and player agreed to end the contract in July 2013. Vasco announced his return a week later. He retired from playing on 2 February 2014. Across his time at Vasco he made 393 appearances and scored 76 goals.

International career

Juninho made his Brazil debut in 1999. On 7 September that year he played in a friendly against Argentina in Porto Alegre and, after a delayed flight, still reached Montevideo in time for the second half of Vasco's Copa Mercosur match the same evening. He took part in the 2001 Copa América. He was not in Brazil's squad for the 2002 World Cup or the 2004 Copa América. He was part of the team that won the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup, scoring a free kick against Greece, and at the 2006 World Cup he scored from distance in open play in Brazil's 4-1 win over Japan. He announced his international retirement after Brazil's quarter-final defeat by France, having made 40 appearances for the national team and scored six goals.

Public roles

After retiring, Juninho worked as a football commentator for the Brazilian network Rede Globo from 2013 to 2018. In May 2019 he returned to Lyon as director of football, and his first decision in the role was to appoint his former Brazil team-mate Sylvinho as head coach.

Recognition

Along with his team honours, Juninho received several individual awards in France: the UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Year title for 2005-06, places in the UNFP Team of the Year in 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06, and Player of the Month awards in February 2005, March 2005 and October 2006. At Lyon he also won the Coupe de France in 2007-08 and the Trophée des Champions in 2002, 2003 and 2004. He is regarded as a specialist in the knuckleball free kick, a technique in which the ball travels with almost no spin and moves unpredictably in the air.