Françoaldo Sena de Souza (born 2 March 1976), commonly known as França, is a Brazilian former 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 played as a striker.

Club career

França was born in

Codó Codó is a city in the Maranhão, Brazil. It has an estimated population of 123,116 (2020) and an area of 4,361.344 km2. Therefore, the sixth most populous municipality in the state. It has the largest concentration of religious centers of A ...

Maranhão Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of . Clockwise from north, it borders on the Atlantic Ocean for 2,243 km and the states of Piauí, Tocantins and ...

. After his senior beginnings with lowly

Nacional Futebol Clube Nacional Futebol Clube, commonly referred to as Nacional, is a Brazilian professional club based in Manaus, Amazonas founded on 13 January 1913. It competes in the Campeonato Amazonense, the top flight of the Amazonas state football league. ...

and

Esporte Clube XV de Novembro (Jaú) Esporte Clube XV de Novembro, more commonly referred to as XV de Jaú, is a Brazilian football club based in Jaú, São Paulo. The team compete in Campeonato Paulista Segunda Divisão, the fourth tier of the São Paulo state football league. Th ...

, he moved in 1996 to national powerhouse

São Paulo FC São Paulo Futebol Clube (), commonly referred to as São Paulo, is a professional football club in the Morumbi district of São Paulo, Brazil, founded in 1930. It plays in the Campeonato Paulista (the State of São Paulo's premier state leag ...

, where he proceeded to net eight goals overall in his debut year – even though he did not start regularly – and 182 goals in 323 games during his six-year stay (fourth all-time at the time of his departure); in 1998 and 2000, as the club won the

Campeonato Paulista The Campeonato Paulista Série A1, commonly known as Campeonato Paulista, nicknamed Paulistão, is the top-flight professional association football, football league in the Brazilian States of Brazil, state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo. Run b ...

, the player was crowned the league's best scorer, respectively at 12 and 18. In the 2002 summer, França signed with

Bayer 04 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 ...

from Germany as the team sought replacements for aging

Ulf Kirsten Ulf Kirsten (born 4 December 1965) is a German former professional footballer who played as a striker. Nicknamed ''Der Schwatte'' (dialect for ''Der Schwarze'', 'The Black One'), he is the first player in history to reach a total 100 caps play ...

(37). In his debut season in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

he appeared scarcely, barred by

Dimitar Berbatov Dimitar Ivanov Berbatov ( bg, Димитър Иванов Бербатов; born 30 January 1981) is a Bulgarian former professional footballer. A striker, he captained the Bulgaria national team from 2006 to 2010, and is the country's all-ti ...

and

Oliver Neuville Oliver Patric Neuville (, born 1 May 1973) is a German former footballer who played as a striker. During an 18-year professional career he played mainly for Bayer Leverkusen (five seasons) and Borussia Mönchengladbach (six), amassing Bundeslig ...

, netting only once, in his league debut in a 2–4 home loss against

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seas ...

; In 2003–04, although the pair remained at the

BayArena Bay Arena () is a football (soccer), football stadium in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, which has been the home ground of Bundesliga club Bayer 04 Leverkusen since 1958. History The stadium was originally known as ''Ulrich-Haberla ...

, França received much more playing time, and finished just two goals short of the Bulgarian (14 to 16, in as many matches), adding to this a league-best 13 assists. Additionally, Neuville left the following summer. França moved to Japan subsequently, joining

Kashiwa Reysol is a Japanese professional football club based in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Sankyo Frontier Kashiwa Stadiu ...

, experiencing one relegation and one promotion in his first two years and leaving the club in 2010, aged 34.

International career

França collected eight

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

during two years, but was never selected to any major tournament. He scored once for the national team; his only goal coming in a friendly against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in May 2000.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

São Paulo *

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

* Torneio Rio – São Paulo: 2001 *

Copa Master de CONMEBOL The Copa Masters CONMEBOL ( en, CONMEBOL Masters Cup, pt, Copa Master da Conmebol or Supercopa Conmebol) was a football club competition contested by the 4 past winners of the Copa CONMEBOL at the time. The cup is one of the many inter-South Ameri ...

: 1996 Kashiwa Reysol *

J.League Division 2 The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Y ...

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 ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Franca 1976 births Living people Footballers from Maranhão Brazilian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Brazil men's international footballers Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Nacional Futebol Clube players Esporte Clube XV de Novembro (Jaú) players São Paulo FC players Bundesliga players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players J1 League players J2 League players Kashiwa Reysol players Yokohama FC players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Japan People from Codó