Juninho Pernambucano to return to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Brazil-c2858 in the next season – Latest football news
Former Olympique de Lyonnais star Juninho Pernambucano will return to his native Brazil after his contract with Qatari club http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Al-Gharafa-c38306 expires.
This was confirmed by Brazilian side, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Vasco-da-Gama-c40872 president Roberto Dinamite.
The dead-ball specialist earlier announced that he was not looking to extend his contract with the Middle-Eastern club which will expire in July 2011 and expressed his desire to return to the club where it all started for him.
Now it seems that Juninho will definitely end his footballing career with Vasco da Gama. Juninho is still an idol at Vasco da Gama where he won the Brazilian championship in 1997 and 2000. In 1998, he won the Copa Libertadores. The Vasco fans call him Reizinho
de Sao Januario (the little king of Sao Januario).
After being so much successful in Brazil, French Ligue 1 giants Olympique de Lyonnais bought the player in 2001. Before the Brazilian’s arrival, Lyon had never won the Ligue 1 Championelle. But all this was to change as in his first season at the club, Lyon
captured the domestic title and then started their amazing 7 consecutive title victories streak that lasted until the 2008-09 season.
The Brazilian is widely regarded as the best free-kick takers in the world and his passing ability was widely acknowledged by former Lyon manager http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gerard-c14664 Houllier. After 8 years at the club, Juninho announced on May 2009 that he will leave the side after
the end of the season and Jean-Michel Aulas, the president of the club explained that Juninho’s contract has been cancelled by mutual consent. Then in June 2009, the Brazilian joined Al-Gharafa and in his first season with the Qatari giants, he captained the
side to its seventh domestic title.
However, it is his time with Lyon that would always be remembered. In 248 appearances for Lyon, the Brazilian playmaker scored 75 goals. Out of those 75 goals for the club, 44 came from free-kicks which is a stat that would be matched by only a rare bunch
of players.
For Brazil, Juninho made his debut in 1999 but never managed to make a lasting impact. Although he represented the Selecao in 41 games, he managed to win just the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2005.
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