Fernando Büttenbender Prass (born 9 July 1978) is a Brazilian football pundit and former player who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Club career

Early years

Prass was born in

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the twelfth most populous city in the country and the center of Brazil's fif ...

. After starting professionally with local Grêmio (but never playing a senior match for them), he joined Francana in 2000, on loan. In 2001, Prass joined Campeonato Brasileiro Série B side Vila Nova, becoming a starter midway through the season. He moved to

Coritiba Coritiba Foot Ball Club, commonly known as Coritiba and colloquially referred to as "Coxa-Branca" or "Coxa", is a Brazilian football club from Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest f ...

in the Série A the following year, and spent four seasons there. In December 2004, already an undisputed starter, Prass renewed his contract.

União Leiria

In June 2005, Prass moved abroad and joined Portugal's União de Leiria, as compatriot Helton had left for

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

also of the Primeira Liga. He made his league debut on 11 September 2005 in a 0–0 home draw against Marítimo, and retained first-choice status from that moment onwards. In the 2006–07 season, Prass only missed two league games as Leiria finished seventh and qualified for the UEFA Intertoto Cup, eventually being one of the competition's winners and appearing in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

, being ousted by

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

in the first round (4–5 on aggregate). The following campaign, the team dropped down to the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

Vasco da Gama

After appearing in 14 matches to help União return to the top flight in 2009, the 31-year-old Prass returned to his country and signed for Vasco da Gama, playing in the second level for the first time in 110 years of history. Rarely missing a match, he helped the

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

side finish as champions and promote immediately, with the best defensive record in the league.

Palmeiras

On 10 December 2012, Prass left Vasco and joined

Palmeiras Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with around ...

, recently relegated to the second tier. He helped them return to the top tier at the first attempt; he quickly became a fan favorite due to his saves and was eventually named team captain, as he led them to their third

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil ( en, Brazil Cup) is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de P ...

title in 2015, scoring the last

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

against rivals Santos in a 4–3 shoot-out victory. On 3 April 2016, Prass saved

Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one ...

's penalty in a 1–0 home win over

Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians ( grc, Α΄ ᾽Επιστολὴ πρὸς Κορινθίους) is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-aut ...

, the ''Alviverde''s first win over their rival at Pacaembu for nearly 21 years. After a good start to the season, he was sidelined with a shoulder injury until December. While his replacement Jailson had a superb year, Prass was handed back the starting role as soon as he recovered. Midway through the 2017 campaign, however, Jailson was again named first choice over Prass. This only lasted five games as the latter was once again named starter, this time due to an injury to the former. Prass extended his contract with Palmeiras until December 2018. After Jailson's recovery and the signing of Weverton in January of that year, he was demoted to third option on the squad. On 7 December 2019, Prass departed the club.

Ceará

On 8 January 2020, at the age of 41, Prass signed a one-year deal with Ceará. He retired at the end of the season.

International career

On 29 June 2016, aged nearly 38 and having never earned any

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for the full side, Prass was selected by the Brazilian national team for the 2016 Summer Olympics by manager

Rogério Micale Mário Rogério Reis Micale (born 28 March 1969), known as Rogério Micale, is a Brazilian professional football coach and former player Career Micale also represented Londrina, Apucarana and Operário Ferroviário before retiring at the age of ...

, as one of three overage players. On 31 July, however, he left the squad due to an elbow injury and was replaced by Weverton.

Style of play

Prass was known for his ability to save penalty kicks, also working closely with Palmeiras employees to study his adversaries. In March 2017, coach

Émerson Leão Émerson Leão (; born 11 July 1949) is a Brazilian former footballer and manager. He is regarded by pundits as one of best Brazilian goalkeepers of all time. A documentary video produced by FIFA, ''FIFA Fever'', called him the third-most im ...

said he would be the perfect choice to lecture younger players in the position who made the national team.

Post-retirement

Prass became an analyst after retiring, working with

TNT Sports Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS, TNT, AT&T SportsNet, and TruTV. ...

for Palmeiras matches in the 2022 Campeonato Paulista.

Club statistics

Honours

Club

Grêmio *

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 ...

: 1999 *

Copa Sul Copa Sul-Minas was a Brazilian football (soccer), football competition that ran between 2000 and 2002, with teams from the three South Brazil, Southern states of Brazil, plus the Southeastern state of Minas Gerais. It replaced the 1999 tournament ca ...

: 1999 Vila Nova *

Campeonato Goiano The Campeonato Goiano is the football league of the state of Goiás, Brazil. Format First Division First stage *Teams are divided in two groups of six teams. *Double round-robin, in which all teams home-and-away games against the team fr ...

: 2001 Coritiba * Campeonato Paranaense: 2004 Vasco * Campeonato Brasileiro Série B: 2009 *

: 2011 Palmeiras * Campeonato Brasileiro Série A:

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

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 Unit ...

*Campeonato Brasileiro Série B:

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 fa ...

*Copa do Brasil: 2015 Ceará * Copa do Nordeste:

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

Individual

* Bola de Prata: 2011 * Campeonato Paulista Team of the Year: 2015

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Prass, Fernando 1978 births Living people Brazilian people of German descent Footballers from Porto Alegre Brazilian footballers Association football goalkeepers Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense players Vila Nova Futebol Clube players Coritiba Foot Ball Club players CR Vasco da Gama players Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras players Ceará Sporting Club players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players U.D. Leiria players Brazilian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal