Airton Ribeiro Santos (born 21 February 1990), simply known as Airton, is a Brazilian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Al-Kahrabaa FC Al-Kahrabaa Sports Club ( ar, نادي الكهرباء الرياضي, lit=Electricity Club) is an Iraqi professional football club based in the Al-Rusafa, Iraq, Rusafa District, near the Tigris river, Baghdad, that plays in Iraqi Premier Leagu ...

Club career

Early career

Airton started his career at

Nova Iguaçu Nova Iguaçu (, locally: or , ''New Iguaçu'') is a municipality in Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil. Location The city is named after the Iguaçu River that runs through it and empties into Guanabara Bay (not to be confused with the Iguaçu Ri ...

at the age of 13. At the end of 2007,

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football t ...

's youth coach Adílio asked for his loan. Airton also spent four months on loan at

Mesquita Mesquita may refer to: People * Mesquita (surname) * Mesquita Machado (), Portuguese politician Places in Brazil * Mesquita, Minas Gerais, a municipality in Minas Gerais * Mesquita, Rio de Janeiro Mesquita (, , Portuguese for "mosque") is a mun ...

in 2007, playing on the youth team.

Flamengo

Airton arrived at Flamengo, on loan, on 7 January 2008 to play for the club's youth team. His rights belonged to, at the time, Nova Iguaçu, which had him under contract until 2010. He would play for Flamengo until the end of 2008, but in 2008, Flamengo officially signed him, acquiring part of his rights — Nova Iguaçu and Traffic, an investors group, shared the other parts of his rights. His first match in the first-team was in a 1–1 draw against

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...

on 6 April 2008, and his debut in the

Brazilian Série A Brazilian commonly refers to: * Something of, from or relating to Brazil * Brazilian Portuguese, the dialect of the Portuguese language used mostly in Brazil * Brazilians, the people (citizens) of Brazil, or of Brazilian descent Brazilian may also ...

was at Mineirão Stadium, coming off the bench in a 1–1 draw against

Atlético Mineiro Atlético, Spanish for ''athletics'', or Athletico in English, may refer to: Sports Teams Athletico *Athletico SC (Lebanon), a Lebanese football academy *Athletic Bilbao, or Atletico Bilbao, Basque students athletic club (also forming Athletic Cl ...

on 9 July.

Benfica

In December 2009, after much speculation, Benfica signed Airton to a five-year contract. Flamengo received a sum around €1.1 million for 15% of his rights. In Portugal, he acted mainly as a back-up for starter

Javi García Francisco Javier "Javi" García Fernández (; born 8 February 1987) is a Spanish former professional footballer who is an assistant manager for Benfica. A defensive midfielder by nature, he could also appear as a central defender. He started ...

for the second part of the 2009-10 season. After struggling to perform on the same level in the following season, Airton was loaned to Flamengo.

Return to Brazil

Airton returned to Flamengo from Benfica almost a year and a half after his original loan deal to Flamengo ended, penning a season-long loan deal on 10 June 2011. In May 2012, it was extended until June 2013, but was eventually cut short as he moved teams. In February 2013,

Internacional Sport Club Internacional (), commonly known as Internacional or simply Inter, is a Brazilian professional football club based in Porto Alegre. They play in the Série A, the first division of the Brazilian league, as well as in Campeonat ...

, signed Airton on loan until December 2013, for a reported €300,000 fee. In January 2014, Airton moved to

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

until June 2014, with the loan deal being later extended until 30 June 2015, effectively meaning Airton will not return to Benfica. On 10 September 2014, Airton was sent off in a match against

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

after deliberately stepping on

Alexandre Pato Alexandre Rodrigues da Silva (; born 2 September 1989), commonly known as Alexandre Pato () or just Pato, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a striker. Pato began his career as a youth player for Internacional in 2000, maki ...

's head, and was suspended for two matches. He also faced a two-year suspension for refusing to take an anti-doping test, which he was later acquitted of. On 10 September 2015, after his contract with Benfica ended, Airton signed a one-season deal with Botafogo.

Club statistics

Honours

Flamengo *

Campeonato Carioca The Campeonato Carioca (Carioca Championship), officially known as Campeonato Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (Port., Rio de Janeiro State Championship), was started in 1906 and is the annual football championship in the state of Rio de Janeiro, B ...

: 2008,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Benfica *

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

: 2009–10 *

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual football club competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the Primeira Liga and LigaPro, the top two tier ...

: 2009–10,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese football match played since 1979 between the winners of the Portuguese League (Primeira Liga) and Portuguese ...

runner-up:

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Internacional *

Campeonato Gaúcho The Campeonato Gaúcho Série A1 (Gaúcho Championship A1 Series or Série A1), officially named as Campeonato da Primeira Divisão de Futebol Profissional da FGF - Divisão Especial - Série A1 and commonly known as Campeonato Gaúcho or Gauchã ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

Individual *

Team of the year:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Airton, 1990-02 Living people 1990 births Brazilian men's footballers Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Rio de Janeiro (city) Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Primeira Liga players Cypriot First Division players Iraq Stars League players Nova Iguaçu FC players Mesquita Futebol Clube players CR Flamengo footballers Sport Club Internacional players Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas players S.L. Benfica footballers Ermis Aradippou FC players Erbil SC players Al-Kahrabaa SC players Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Iraq Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Iraq