Rodrigo Ely (born 3 November 1993) 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

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Grêmio.

Club career

Milan

Rodrigo Ely is a youth product of Brazilian club, Grêmio, and joined

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

in 2012. He spent two years with the youth side before subsequent loan spells with several low tier Italian clubs.

Reggina / Varese (loan)

On 24 July 2012, Ely joined

Reggina Reggina 1914 S.r.l., commonly referred to as Reggina, is an Italian football club based in Reggio Calabria. Founded in 1914, they currently play in Serie B, and play their home matches at the 27,763 seater Stadio Oreste Granillo. They are nic ...

on a season-long loan. On 16 July 2013, AC Milan confirmed that they had reached an agreement for the season-long loan of Ely to

Varese Varese ( , , or ; lmo, label= Varesino, Varés ; la, Baretium; archaic german: Väris) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 has reached 80,559. It is the c ...

Avellino

On 21 July 2014, Ely joined

Avellino Avellino () is a town and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

on a free transfer.

Return to Milan

After impressive performances with Avellino in the 2014–15 season, Milan decided to bring him back to San Siro on 10 June 2015, where he signed new contract which will keep him at the club until 30 June 2019. Despite Ely being a free agent, Milan also paid an unknown party a €8 million fee. He made his first

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

game of the 2015–16 season with Milan, in a 2–0 defeat against

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

, where he received two yellow cards, thus getting sent off.

Alavés

On 30 January 2017, Ely joined La Liga club Deportivo Alavés on loan for the remainder of the season. He made his debut for the club on 11 March, replacing

Ibai Gómez Ibai Gómez Pérez (born 11 November 1989) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played mainly as a left winger. He achieved La Liga totals of 226 games and 28 goals over 11 seasons, with Athletic Bilbao (two spells) and Alavés. He ...

in a 2–1 away win against

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a association football, football club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, that competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, ...

. On 17 April 2017, Ely scored his first goal in the main category, netting his team's second in a 2–1 home win against Villarreal CF. On 21 July, he signed a permanent four-year deal with the Basque side.

Nottingham Forest

On 2 September 2021, Ely signed a one-year deal with

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

side Nottingham Forest as a free transfer. On 31 January 2022, it was announced that Forest and Ely had mutually agreed to terminate his contract at the club, without him having made an appearance.

Almería

On 7 March 2022, free agent Ely signed a three-month contract with UD Almería back in Spain, with an option for a further two years.

Grêmio

On 1 August 2023, Ely agreed to a two-and-a-half-year contract with his first club Grêmio, pending on medical examinations.

International career

Ely played for Italy at Under-19 and

Under-20 Junior is a category of athletics in which athletes compete under the age of 20 years. Countries all around the world compete in athletics. World Junior Athletics Competitions are held every two years which contain the best junior competitors in ...

, but was called up by

Alexandre Gallo Alexandre Tadeu Gallo (born 29 May 1967), known as Alexandre Gallo or just Gallo, is a Brazilian football coach and former player who played as a defensive midfielder. He is the current head coach of Londrina. Career Gallo started his career ...

to be a part of his Brazil Under-23 squad, which was preparing to compete at Rio 2016.

Career statistics

Honours

Club

; Milan *

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seaso ...

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 trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

;Alavés * Copa del Rey:

2016-17 16-17 is a band from Basel, Switzerland. Their music combines punk rock, hardcore punk, jazz and industrial music. Biography 16-17 was founded in 1983 by Alex Buess, Knut Remond and Markus Kneubühler. When the group played its first conc ...

Runner-up Grêmio * Campeonato Gaúcho:

2024 Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1928 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ***''Steamboat Willie'', Walt Disney's fi ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ely, Rodrigo 1993 births Living people Footballers from Rio Grande do Sul Brazilian people of Italian descent Italian people of Brazilian descent Italian men's footballers Brazilian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Serie A players Serie B players AC Milan players US Avellino 1912 players SSD Varese Calcio players LFA Reggio Calabria players La Liga players Deportivo Alavés players UD Almería players Grêmio FBPA players Italy men's youth international footballers Brazil men's youth international footballers Nottingham Forest F.C. players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in England People from Lajeado