Júnior Negrão

Gleidionor Figueiredo Pinto Júnior (born 30 December 1986), or simply Júnior Negrão (often written as Negão), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who plays as a forward.

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, South Korea and China.

He 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.

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. 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. 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 a 2–0 away loss against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.

Originally supposed to be a back-up striker for teammates Kim Seung-jun and Toyoda, after the injury crisis of the former and the departure of the latter he began to find more and more space in the squad, scoring his first goal for Ulsan against Pohang Steelers and continuing his streak for three more matches, against Gangwon, his former team Daegu and FC Seoul: plus, he scored a brace in the AFC Champions League as the "Horangi" thrashed Melbourne Victory 6–2. However, during the following game (against Gyeongnam) he suffered a new injury and got ruled out for a month.

As the K League stopped throughout the whole month of June, due to the participation of the South Korea national team to the World Cup, Júnior had more time to recover and returned on the pitch as soon as the competition 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 consecutive matches against Daegu and Jeju United. After another couple of goalless appearances, on 15 August the Brazilian striker started a goal streak that would last for exactly a month, as he scored against Gyeongnam (a brace, plus an assist for Kim Seung-jun), Daegu, Sangju (two times), Seoul (also two times), Incheon United and Pohang: in four out of these six occasions, Ulsan won the match.

Júnior's impressive state of form continued for the rest of the year, as he added other five goals between regular season and championship round in K League, as well as three goals (two against Gimhae FC and one against Suwon Samsung Bluewings) in the Korean FA Cup, which Ulsan eventually lost in a double final to Daegu. The "Horangi" eventually finished the K League 1 in third place and Júnior gained the same placement in the top scorer chart, with 22 goals (Uroš Đerić and fellow Brazilian Marcão being the only players to top him), as well as a spot in the championship's Best XI, together with his team-mate Richard Windbichler.

The following season began quite in the same fashion for the Brazilian, immediately scoring a goal in Ulsan's 5–1 home win against Malaysian side Perak TBG to advance to the AFC Champions League's group stage. Then, in his side's first K League 1 game of the year against Suwon, he found the net again and provided an assist for Kim In-sung in Ulsan's 2–1 win.

A regular starter throughout the whole year (Joo Min-kyu being the main back-up striker for him), Júnior continued performing well in South Korea, where he confessed repeated times to "feel at home".

The Brazilian and Ulsan prepared for the 2020 season hoping they would find redemption from their past losses: unfortunately, the "Horangi" managed to play just 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 international competitions were suspended and/or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ulsan made his seasonal debut with a 4–0 home win against Sangju Sangmu, with Júnior scoring two goals (one of which on a penalty kick) and assisting one for Lee Sang-heon. The Brazilian's performance kickstarted one of the most successful seasons of his lifetime. As a result, to his performances, the center-forward was included in the Champions League's Best XI: plus, thanks to his seven goals he became the top scorer of the competition, together with Abderrazak Hamdallah, even though the official award went to the Moroccan striker, since he played fewer minutes throughout the whole competition.

Moreover, Júnior's marvellous 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), as well as the fifth most prolific striker of the year, behind only the likes of Erling Haaland, Romelu Lukaku, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robert Lewandowski.

After four years full of achievements, the Brazilian's journey in South Korea came to an end on 28 January 2021: on that day, Ulsan published Júnior's official farewell speech on their YouTube channel, as he announced that the club and him agreed to let his contract expire, observing that he "wanted and needed to change", even though he stressed that "he would always support the team". Press sources indicated new manager Hong Myung-Bo's plan to assemble a younger squad as one of the possible reasons for the Brazilian's departure.

In January 2023, Júnior left Changchun Yatai.

Sichuan Jiuniu On 21 April 2023, Júnior joined China League One side Sichuan Jiuniu.

Personal life Júnior is a Christian, and he is frequently seen pointing fingers to the sky as a form of prayer after scoring a goal. Júnior is married and he has two daughters, named Anna Julia and Isabella.

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Honours Ulsan Hyundai AFC Champions League: 2020 Korean FA Cup runner-up: 2018, 2020

Individual K League 1 Best XI: 2018, 2019, 2020 K League 1 top scorer: 2020 AFC Champions League top scorer: 2020 AFC Champions League Fans XI: 2020 AFC Champions League All Star XI: 2020 Chinese Super League Top Scorer: 2021 K League Player of the Month: September 2019, May 2020, July 2020