Giovane Alves da Silva (born 25 November 1982 in

Taió Taió is a municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil. Sister City * Zhoukou, Henan, China See also *List of municipalities in Santa Catarina This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Santa Catarina ...

, Santa Catarina,

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 ...

), commonly known as Giovane or 基奧雲尼 in Hong Kong and 思华 in mainland China, is a former

ian-born

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

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

Giovane joined

Sun Hei Sun Hei Sports Club () is a Hong Kong football club which currently competes in the Hong Kong Third Division. The club has a long history in playing in the top flight, but decided to self-relegate in the 2013–14 season after declining to parti ...

in 2007. He came to prominence the season after and bested fellow Brazilian Detinho to become the top scorer of that season with 26 goals. He became considered one of the best foreign players of the league after this achievement. He left the club to try pursuing a career in Europe but failed to land a contract, joining Brazilian clubs Brusque and Atlético Ibirama. In 2010, he joined Guangdong Sunray Cave, scoring 12 goals in 23 games. In December 2010 he returned to Hong Kong joining South China, scoring in his debut against Tuen Mun resulting in a 4–1 victory for his side. In 2012, he joined Biu Chun Rangers enjoying a fruitful spell. However, he was not kept as the club thinks he does not suit their playing style. In 2013, Giovane joined

Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

and led the club in scoring for each of his four seasons at the club. On 27 June 2017, R&F vice chairman Huang Shenghua announced that his club had signed Giovane on a free transfer. On 14 October 2020, he left the club after his club's withdrawal from the HKPL in the new season. On 25 August 2023, after 3 years away from professional football, Giovane returned to HKPL and joined Rangers. He left the club on 6 January 2024.

International career

Giovane received his Hong Kong passport in September 2018 and was called into manager Gary White's preliminary squad on 26 September 2018. On 11 October 2018, Giovane made his international debut for the national team in a friendly match against

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

Career statistics

Club

''As of October 31, 2010''

International

Honours

South China *

Hong Kong FA Cup Hong Kong FA Cup () is a knockout cup competition in Hong Kong football, run by and named after The Hong Kong Football Association. The first edition of the competition was held in 1975, before then the cup was known as the Golden Jubilee Cup. Th ...

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 ...

Hong Kong League Cup Hong Kong Football Association League Cup () is an annual football competition contested by clubs in the top-tier Hong Kong domestic football league (currently Hong Kong Premier League). The cup was relaunched for the 2014–15 season after being ...

Eastern *

Hong Kong Premier League The Hong Kong Premier League () is a Hong Kong professional football league organised by the Hong Kong Football Association. It is currently sponsored by BOC Life and officially known as BOC Life Hong Kong Premier League (). The inaugural seaso ...

: 2015–16 *

Hong Kong Senior Shield The Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield (), known commonly as the Senior Shield, is the football knockout inter-club competition held in Hong Kong and the fourth oldest football tournament in Asia. Traditionally, only the teams in the Hong Kong Pr ...

: 2014–15, 2015–16 *

: 2013–14 Individual *

Hong Kong Footballer of the Year The Hong Kong Top Footballers Awards (), established by the Hong Kong Football Association in 1978, recognizes the top performers for each season's Hong Kong Premier League. The prizes are decided according to the votes from mass media and the ge ...

: 2015

References

External links

* 1982 births Living people Hong Kong men's footballers Hong Kong men's international footballers Brazilian men's footballers Brazilian emigrants to Hong Kong Men's association football forwards Clube Náutico Marcílio Dias players Brusque Futebol Clube players Sun Hei SC players Shaanxi Wuzhou F.C. players China League One players Hong Kong First Division League players Hong Kong Premier League players Expatriate men's footballers in China Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in China Eastern Sports Club footballers Hong Kong Rangers FC players R&F (Hong Kong) players Hong Kong League XI representative players {{HongKong-footy-bio-stub