Jonas Gonçalves Oliveira (born 1 April 1984), known as Jonas (), 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 ...

who played as a striker. A Brazilian international on twelve occasions, he could also play as an

attacking 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 ...

. Jonas started his career in Brazil with Guarani, later joining Santos, Grêmio ( Bola de Prata in 2010) and Portuguesa before moving to Spanish side

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

in 2011. Three years later, he joined Benfica in Portugal playing there for 8 seasons, collecting several individual awards since, most notably the Primeira Liga Player of the Year (2015, 2016) and the Bola de Prata (2016, 2018). Moreover, collectively, he won four Primeira Liga titles, one

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

, two Taça da Liga and two

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 ...

Club career

Guarani

Jonas started his senior career at Guarani in 2005. He made his debut against

Santo André Santo ('saint' in various languages) may refer to: People * Santo (given name) * Santo (surname) * El Santo, Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta (1917–1984), Mexican wrestler and actor * Bob Santo or Santo, stage name of Ghanaian comedian John Evans Kwadwo ...

. While playing for Guarani, Jonas scored 13 goals, 12 of them in 25 league matches.

Santos

In 2006, Jonas transferred to Santos, where he won the

2006 Campeonato Paulista The 2006 Campeonato Paulista de Futebol Profissional da Primeira Divisão - Série A1 was the 105th season of São Paulo's top professional football league. Santos were the champions, winning for the 16th time. League table Top scorers So ...

scoring five goals in six matches. However, he had a serious knee injury that kept him out of action for six months. In 2007, he returned to the pitch and scored four goals in the Paulista, helping Santos win the tournament for the second time in a row. After spending only one year at Santos, Jonas transferred to Grêmio in 2007.

Grêmio

On 12 September 2007, Grêmio signed a four-year deal which transferred 50% of Jonas' rights. He made his debut in the Gre–Nal derby, leaving injured early in the second half. After the arrival of more forwards in 2008, Jonas lost his place, sometimes even failing to make the reserves list. The most consistent criticism from the press was his lack of physical strength when playing up front against powerful defenders. By July, he decided to leave the club.

Portuguesa (loan)

Despite not being able to avoid relegation to the Série B in 2008, Jonas was one of the best players in the team, scoring 18 goals during his stay, nine in the Campeonato Brasileiro, ahead of teammate Edno's eight.

Return to Grêmio

After the end of the loan, Jonas returned to Grêmio for the 2009 season. He played in the

2009 Copa Libertadores The 2009 Copa Libertadores de América (officially the 2009 Copa Santander Libertadores de América for sponsorship reasons) was the 50th edition of the Copa Libertadores de América, CONMEBOL's premier annual international club tournament. The ...

, and after playing his worst game in the tournament (incredibly missing three chances to score in the same attack) against Boyacá Chicó he was dubbed "the worst forward of the world" ("''el peor delantero del mundo''") by Spanish newspaper '' Mundo Deportivo''. Jonas, however, scored 14 goals in the

2009 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The 2009 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A was the 53rd edition of the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top-level of professional football in Brazil. It was contested by 20 clubs starting on May 9 and ending on December 6. The 2009 edition was wo ...

and was amongst the top goal scorers. He enjoyed further success throughout the 2010 season: he was top-scorer for Grêmio in the 2010 Campeonato Gaúcho and finished the top goal scorer in the Série A with 23 goals.Jonas, 40 gols no ano, já bateu duas metas na temporada , globoesporte.com
Globoesporte.globo.com (11 October 2010). Retrieved on 31 December 2012.

Valencia

Due to a low release fee (€1.25 million), Jonas rescinded his contract with Grêmio, where he was finally transferred to Spanish club

on 24 January 2011. His first goal for ''Los Che'' came on 27 February, scoring a late winner in a 2–1 away victory for Valencia against Athletic Bilbao. He scored his second goal in a match against Real Madrid on 24 April, which ended 3–6. On 1 November 2011, Jonas scored the second fastest goal in

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

history by netting inside 10.5 seconds to give Valencia a 1–0 lead over

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 ...

. He fell just short of former Bayern Munich and Dutch national team striker

Roy Makaay Rudolphus Antonius "Roy" Makaay (born 9 March 1975) is a Dutch former footballer and a coach who is currently first team coach at Rangers. As a striker, he was known for his goal-scoring ability as a result of his "aerial prowess and quick driv ...

's record of 10.13 seconds that he set against Real Madrid in the 2006–07 edition of the tournament. Valencia won the match 3–1. Jonas scored both goals for Valencia in a 2–0 Champions League win against

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

on 2 October 2012. In the

2012–13 La Liga The 2012–13 La Liga season (known as the ''Liga BBVA'' for sponsorship reasons) was the 82nd since its establishment. The campaign began on 18 August 2012, and ended on 1 June 2013. Barcelona won the league for a 22nd time, after leading the l ...

, he scored a personal-season high of 13 goals for Valencia. On 1 December 2013, Jonas hit an eight-minute hat-trick as Valencia defeated ten-man

Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El ...

in a home league match. On 1 September 2014, he rescinded his link with the club.

Benfica

2014–15 season

On 12 September 2014, Jonas signed for Portuguese Primeira Liga champions Benfica on a two-year deal. On 5 October, he debuted for the club in a 4–0 win against Arouca, scoring his side's fourth goal. On 18 October, he scored a hat-trick as Benfica defeated

Covilhã Covilhã () is a city and a municipality in the Centro region, Portugal. The city proper had 34,772 inhabitants in 2001. The municipality population in 2011 was 51,797, in an area of . It is located in the Beiras e Serra da Estrela subregion and ...

2–3 in the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

. On 22 November, he scored twice against Moreirense (4–1) in the

Portuguese Cup Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

. On 30 December, he scored the only goal in a home win against Nacional in the

of the Taça da Liga, thus scoring in every domestic competition. On 21 January 2015, Jonas scored at Moreirense in the league cup and became the Brazilian with the best average number of goals in Europe (0.81), surpassing

Neymar Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (born 5 February 1992), known as Neymar, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the Brazil national team. A prolific goalscorer and renowned ...

(0.74) and

Luiz Adriano Luiz Adriano de Souza da Silva (born 12 April 1987), or simply Luiz Adriano (), is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Süper Lig club Antalyaspor. Born in Porto Alegre, he began his career at hometown club Interna ...

(0.70), with 13 goals in 16 matches. On 28 February, Jonas scored twice in the thrashing of

Estoril Estoril () is a town in the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a tourist destination, with luxury hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numerous royal families and celebrities, and has h ...

(6–0) in the league. On 14 March, Jonas scored his 20th goal for Benfica (in 25 matches) and set his season goal record in Europe, as Benfica beat

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

(2–0) in the Primeira Liga. On 4 April, he scored two goals against Nacional in the league. On 11 April, he scored twice against Académica de Coimbra (5–1) in the league. On 18 April, he netted a brace for a third consecutive league match, in a win at Belenenses (0–2), and became the second best top scorer in Primeira Liga with 16 goals in 22 matches. On 23 May 2015, after winning the league title, Jonas netted a brace (two goals) in a home win against Marítimo (4–1) in his last league match of the season in which he could have become the league's top scorer with 21 goals, but one of his three goals was wrongly invalidated for offside. On 29 May, he scored the first goal in a 2–1 win against Marítimo in the Taça da Liga final, being elected as man of the match. In this season, he was the top scorer in the league cup with five goals, and in the Taça de Portugal with six goals. On 4 July, he won the league's Player of the Year award.

2015–16 season

In the 2015–16 season, Jonas scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a 4–1 win at Nacional, increasing his tally to 18 goals in 17 league matches. On 5 February 2016, he netted a brace in a league victory at Belenenses (0–5). On 16 February, he scored a

last-minute goal The term "last-minute goal" is used in sport, primarily association football, to describe a goal scored very late in a game, usually one that affects the outcome of the game. The definition of a "last-minute goal" commonly used is one scored either ...

with a header in the 91st minute to give Benfica a home win against

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acco ...

(1–0) in the first leg of

round of 16 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

. On 29 February, Jonas netted a brace against

União da Madeira União is the Portuguese word for Union. It may refer to: *the Brazilian federal government *União do Vegetal, a church known for its usage of Hoasca as tea * Brazilian frigate ''União'' (F45), a general-purpose ''Niterói'' class frigate launc ...

(2–0) in the Primeira Liga and equalised

Óscar Cardozo Óscar René Cardozo Marín (; born 20 May 1983) is a Paraguayan professional footballer who plays as a striker for Club Libertad and the Paraguay national team. Known for his powerful left-foot shot and free-kick skills, he first gained att ...

's scoring record at Benfica in the 2009–10 season. On 14 March 2016, Jonas scored twice against

Tondela Tondela () is a municipality in the central Portuguese subregion of Dão-Lafões. The population in 2011 was 28,946, in an area of 371.22 km². History Local writer and intellectual Amadeu Ferraz de Carvalho (1876–1951) wrote of the mun ...

in a 4–1 home league win and became Benfica's top scorer in the 21st century, with 30 goals. Six days later, he scored the winning goal at Boavista (0–1) in the 93rd minute. On 15 May, he scored his 32nd league goal, in a home win against Nacional (4–1) on the final day, and received the Bola de Prata award during the league title celebration. Throughout the season, he was a candidate to win the

European Golden Shoe The European Golden Shoe, also known as European Golden Boot, is an award that is presented each season to the leading goalscorer in league matches from the top division of a European national league. The trophy is a sculpture of a football boo ...

, and even lead the race,Bota de Ouro: Jonas volta a isolar-se, conheça os 10 primeiros
Maisfutebol but ultimately he finished fourth. On 15 July, Jonas was awarded the Top Goalscorer and the Best Player awards in Primeira Liga for the 2015–16 season.

2016–17 season

Jonas opened the 2016–17 season with a goal in the 3–0 win over

for the

2016 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The 2016 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira was the 38th edition of the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira. It took place on 7 August 2016, and it featured the champions of the 2015–16 Primeira Liga, Benfica, and the winners of the 2015–16 Taça d ...

. Days later, he required surgery for

osteophyte Osteophytes are exostoses (bony projections) that form along joint margins. They should not be confused with enthesophytes, which are bony projections that form at the attachment of a tendon or ligament. Osteophytes are not always distinguished ...

s, which ended up ruling him out until late December. Despite not opening his account for the league season until the 16th matchday in a 2–0 win at

Vitória de Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...

, Jonas finished the campaign with 13 goals from 19 games, making him the league's fifth-highest scorer of the season and Benfica's second. On 1 April 2017 he scored his first goal against another member of the Big Three in a 1–1 home draw with

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 ...

, and in doing so reached 65 league goals for Benfica – leapfrogging the Swede Mats Magnusson as the club's highest foreign goalscorer in the competition, behind Paraguay's

(112).

2017–18 season

In the

2017 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The 2017 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira was the 39th edition of the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira. It took place on 5 August 2017 and featured the winners of the 2016–17 Primeira Liga and 2016–17 Taça de Portugal, Benfica, and the runners ...

against Vitória de Guimarães at the

Estádio Municipal de Aveiro The Estádio Municipal de Aveiro is a football stadium in Aveiro, Portugal. It was designed for the UEFA Euro 2004 tournament by Portuguese architect Tomás Taveira. It has a capacity of 32,830 spectators, making it the fifth largest football sta ...

, Jonas opened the scoring after six minutes of a 3–1 win for Benfica. He scored five times in the four league matches of August 2017, including a hat-trick in a 5–0 win over neighbours Belenenses on 19 August. On 26 November, he scored twice in a 6–0 home win over

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...

to pass 100 goals for Benfica, and also became only their second player after Julinho (1949–50) to net in ten consecutive league fixtures. He picked up the league's Player of the Month award five months running from October/November 2017 to March 2018. On 3 March 2018, Jonas scored a hat-trick in a 5–0 home win over Marítimo. He ended the season with 34 goals from 30 games in the league, finishing as top scorer for the second time, seven goals ahead of Sporting's Bas Dost; Benfica missed out on the league title to Porto, and Jonas missed several games towards the end of the season.

2018–19 season

On 3 November 2018 Jonas reached 100 Primeira Liga goals for Benfica, in the second minute of a home game against Moreirense that ended in a shock 3–1 loss. Following his return from injury in the 2018–19 season, Jonas netted a brace that sealed a 10–0 home thrashing of Nacional in the league on 11 February 2019. On 9 July 2019, he announced his retirement.

International career

Jonas was called up for the Brazil national team for the first time and made his debut in a friendly against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

at the Emirates Stadium on 27 March 2011. He came on as a substitute for

Leandro Damião Leandro Damião da Silva dos Santos (; born 22 July 1989), known as Leandro Damião or simply Damião, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Japanese club Kawasaki Frontale. He has been capped at international level ...

in the 78th minute, and Brazil went on to win the match 2–0. Jonas scored his first goals with the ''Seleção'' in a friendly against

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

on 14 November 2011, netting a brace in a 2–0 victory. On 30 March 2016, Jonas earned his ninth cap for Brazil – the first since 11 September 2012. He replaced

Ricardo Oliveira Ricardo José Dognella Lima de Oliveira (; born 6 May 1980) is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Athletic. He represented São Paulo and Santos in two different spells, but also played in Spain, amassing La Liga ...

in the 80th minute of the match against

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

that ended with a 2–2 draw, in the

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

. On 20 May, Jonas was called up to replace injured Ricardo Oliveira in the Brazil's

Copa América Centenario The Copa América Centenario ( pt, Copa América Centenário, french: Coupe Amerique Centennaire, en, Centennial Cup America; literally ''Centennial America Cup'') was an international men's association football tournament that was hosted by the ...

squad.

Personal life

Jonas was born in the city of

Bebedouro Bebedouro is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in 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 m ...

and was raised in Taiúva, a neighbour municipality in the state of

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 Ga ...

. He was born to teachers Ismael (father) and Maria Luiza (mother). He has two older brothers, Tiago and Diego. In August 2015, Jonas gained Italian citizenship.

Career statistics

Club

International

Source: International goals :''Scores and results list Brazil's goal tally first.''

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 ...

: 2010 Santos * Campeonato Paulista: 2006, 2007 Benfica * Primeira Liga: 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2018–19 *

: 2016–17 * Taça da Liga: 2014–15, 2015–16 *

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 ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

Individual

* Campeonato Brasileiro Série A Team of the Year: 2010 * Bola de Prata: 2010 * Arthur Friedenreich Award: 2010 *

Cosme Damião Cosme Damião (2 November 1885 – 12 June 1947) was a Portuguese football player-coach for S.L. Benfica. He is remembered as the main force behind the birth of Benfica and one of the first great Portuguese football players. Benfica's yearly aw ...

Awards – Footballer of the Year: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 * SJPF Player of the Month: February 2015, April 2015, January 2016, February 2016 March 2016, December 2017, January 2018, February 2018, March 2018 * 2015 Taça da Liga Final: Man of the Match *

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

's Player of the Year in Portugal: 2014–15 * Primeira Liga Player of the Year: 2014–15, 2015–16 * CNID Awards – Footballer of the Year: 2016 * Primeira Liga Top scorer: 2015–16, 2017–18 * SJPF Primeira Liga Team of the Year: 2016, 2017 * ''

A Bola ''A Bola'' (; en, literally "The Ball", in this context "The Game of Football") is a Portuguese sports newspaper published in Lisbon. History and profile ''A Bola'' was founded in 1945 by Cândido de Oliveira and Ribeiro dos Reis, and was ...

s Player of the Year: 2017Jonas eleito o jogador do ano por ''A Bola''
(archived)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jonas 1984 births Living people People from Bebedouro Brazilian footballers Brazil international footballers Association football forwards Guarani FC players Santos FC players Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense players Associação Portuguesa de Desportos players Valencia CF players S.L. Benfica footballers Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players La Liga players Primeira Liga players Brazilian expatriate footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Spain Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Portugal Naturalised citizens of Italy Copa América Centenario players Footballers from São Paulo (state)