João Soares da Mota Neto (born 21 November 1980), also known as Mota, is a Brazilian

football striker Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to p ...

who last played for Ferroviário.

Career

Mota began his career with

Ceará Sporting Club Ceará Sporting Club, or Ceará, as they are usually called, is a Brazilian football team from the city of Fortaleza, capital city of the Brazilian state of Ceará, founded on June 2, 1914, by Luís Esteves and Pedro Freire. Ceará is one of ...

in 1998, then went to play for Spanish side

RCD Mallorca B RCD Mallorca B, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Palma, Majorca, in the Balearic Islands. Founded in 1967, it is the reserve team of RCD Mallorca and currently plays in Segunda Federación – Group 3, holding home matches at '' Estad ...

from 1999 to 2001. He was suspended by the club in April 2001 after a

Royal Spanish Football Federation The Royal Spanish Football Federation ( es, Real Federación Española de Fútbol; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. It is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. It was founded on 14 October 1909 ...

investigation into the veracity of his Portuguese passport that he was using to work in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

; he said that he was entitled to it due to having a Portuguese great-grandmother. He was banned for a year by Spain's Court of Sport, which found that he obtained the passport illegally in 1998. Mota then went back to Brazil and played for

Cruzeiro Esporte Clube Cruzeiro Esporte Clube (), known simply as Cruzeiro, is a Brazilian sports club based in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Although they compete in a number of different sports, Cruzeiro is mostly known for its association football team. It plays ...

scoring 32 goals in the league. In 2004, he went to the Far East where he played for South Korean professional league,

K-League K League (Hangul: K리그) is South Korea's professional football league. It includes first division K League 1 and second division K League 2. History Until the 1970s, South Korean football operated two major football leagues, the National S ...

side

Chunnam Dragons The Jeonnam Dragons (Korean: 전남 드래곤즈) are a South Korean professional football club based in the city of Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. The Dragons play thei ...

, finishing as the league's top scorer with 14 goals. In early 2005, Mota joined Portuguese giant

Sporting Lisbon Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

. However, he could not make the same impact, and Mota returned to K-League in July. He now plays for

Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma Seongnam () is the fourth largest city in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province after Suwon and the 10th largest city in the country. Its population is approximately one million. Seongnam is a satellite city of Seoul. It is largely a residential city ...

. His agent, since his move from Ceará to Cruzeiro in 2003, is Emerson Damasceno, from Brazil. As soon as he moved on to

he became the best player for his club, scoring 7 goals in 19 matches. However, he suffered from a broken left ankle in the match against

Gyeongnam FC Gyeongnam FC (Hangul: 경남 FC) is a South Korean professional football club based in South Gyeongsang Province that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. Its home stadium is the Changwon Football Center, located ...

in 2006, which forced him to be out of the pitch for several months. He then came back from injury at the time of Play-off season, and scored the winning goal against

FC Seoul FC Seoul ( ko, FC 서울) is a South Korean professional football club based in Seoul that competes in the K League 1, the top flight of South Korean football. The club is owned by GS Sports, a subsidiary of GS Group. They play their home games ...

in semi-final, and two goals in the final against

Suwon Samsung Bluewings ''(The Blue, White and Reds)''Tricolor'' , short name = SSB , image = , caption = , founded = , ground = Suwon World Cup Stadium , capacity = 44,031 , owner = Cheil Worldwide(Samsung's subsidiary) , chairma ...

. On 26 March 2009, Mota signed with

Ceará Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the ...

until the end of the season, helping Ceará to be promoted to first division in Brazil. On 28 December 2009, Mota came back to South Korea and joined

Pohang Steelers The Pohang Steelers (Hangul: 포항 스틸러스) are a South Korean professional football club based in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province that compete in the K League 1, the top flight of South Korean football. The Steelers were founded on 1 A ...

. After spending a two-year at Pohang, he returned to Brazil for his family. In January 2012, Mota signed with Ceará Sporting Club, where he played for the third time in his career.

Honors

Club

;Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma *

** Champions :

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

** Runners-up :

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

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 ...

Korean FA Cup The Korean FA Cup is a national football cup knockout competition of South Korea, held annually by the Korea Football Association (KFA). Before the FA Cup was established in 1996, two predecessor competitions named All Joseon Football Tournament ...

Runners-up :

K-League Cup The Korean League Cup was a professional football competition in South Korean football. It was held by the K League Federation from 1986 to 2012. Sponsorship Champions List of finals Titles by club K League's principle of official statist ...

Runners-up :

Individual

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

Top Scorer :

K-League Top Scorer The K League Top Scorer Award has been awarded to the top goalscorers of K League since the 1983 season. K League 1 winners (1983–present) K League 2 winners (2013–present) See also * K League * K League records and statistics * K L ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

K-League Best XI The K League Best XI is an award for the best eleven players in a K League season. K League 1 award (1983–present) Winners Players marked bold won the Most Valuable Player award in that respective year. Appearances by player Appeara ...

References

External links

Mota at SambafootCBF
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mota 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Fortaleza Brazilian footballers Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Ceará Sporting Club players Brazilian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain RCD Mallorca B players Cruzeiro Esporte Clube players Clube Atlético Bragantino players Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Expatriate footballers in South Korea K League 1 players Jeonnam Dragons players Seongnam FC players Pohang Steelers players Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Portugal Primeira Liga players Sporting CP footballers Association football forwards