Mycael Pontes Moreira (born 12 March 2004), simply known as Mycael, is a Brazilian 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 plays 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 ...

for

Athletico Paranaense Club Athletico Paranaense (commonly known as Athletico and formerly known as Atlético Paranaense) is a Brazilian football team from the city of Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná, founded on March 26, 1924. The team ...

and the

Brazil national under-20 football team The Brazil national under-20 football team, also known as Brazil Sub-20 or Seleção Sub-20, represents Brazil in association football at this age level and is controlled by the Brazilian Football Confederation, Brazilian Football ...

Early life

From Porto Velho,

Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). To the west is a short border with the state of Acre, to the north is the state of Amazonas, in the east is Mato Grosso, ...

, his father Moisés Moreira recalls Mycael initially played as a left-back when he first trained with local neighbourhood side Seu Zeca. However, the regular goalkeeper didn’t turn up one day and Mycael played in goal and saved a penalty and made a number of other saves. Mycael has a number of amateur goalkeepers in his family.

Club career

Mycael signed his first professional contract with

aged 16 in 2020. In November 2022 the club announced that Maycael would be promoted to the senior first team squad for the 2023 season.

International career

Mycael made his debut with the Brazil under-15 age group team against a Paraguay age group team in July 25, 2019. He won the under-15 South American championship that year, and the following year made his debut for the Brazil under-17 team. He was also named goalkeeper of the tournament at the

Revelations Cup The Revelations Cup is an international association football tournament organized by Mexican Football Federation (FMF) for men's under-20 national teams. The inaugural tournament took place in November 2021 in Guanajuato, Mexico. Locations ...

in Mexico in 2021. Mycael won the

2023 South American U-20 Championship The South American Youth Football Championship, also known as U-20 South American Championship and es, Torneo Juventudes de América, "Campeonato Sudamericano Sub 20" or pt, Juventude da América (English: "America's Youth") is a South American f ...

with Brazil. He was awarded man of the match for the final game which secured the title for Brazil, against Uruguay. He has also saved a penalty in a match for Brazil against Argentina. His displays led him to being one of the players singled out from the tournament by South American football pundit Tim Vickery among those who “enhanced their reputations in Colombia

ith The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediatel ...

careers worth watching”. On March 3, 2023, Mycael was called up to the senior

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 ...

squad for the first time as interim coach Ramon Menezes prepared a team to play a friendly match against

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

Personal life

Mycael joined Trieste, an amateur team from

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná (state), Paraná in Brazil. The city's population was 1,948,626 , making it the List of cities in Brazil by population, eighth most populous city in Brazil and the largest in ...

, in 2017. There, he lived for two years with teammate and fellow goalkeeper Bernardo Pisetta and his family prior to his move to Athletico Paranaense aged 14. Mycael honours his friend Bernardo, who died in the Flamengo training ground fire in 2019, by wearing an under shirt containing his photo underneath his match day jersey, a practice he has said he will continue throughout his career, saying:

References

External links

Athletico Paranaense profile
* 2004 births Living people People from Porto Velho Sportspeople from Rondônia Brazilian men's footballers Brazil men's youth international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Club Athletico Paranaense players Footballers at the 2023 Pan American Games Pan American Games medalists in football Pan American Games gold medalists for Brazil Medalists at the 2023 Pan American Games {{Brazil-footy-goalkeeper-stub