Ronny Heberson Furtado de Araújo (born 11 May 1986), known simply as Ronny, 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 mainly played as a

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 ...

. He signed with

Sporting CP 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 ...

at the age of 20, but could never impose himself in the first team. Subsequently, he played several seasons with Hertha BSC, having joined in 2010.

Club career

Early years / Sporting

Born in Fortaleza, Ceará, Ronny began his professional career with Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, spending three seasons with the club but appearing mainly for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

. After his contract ended in July 2006, he moved to

. Since joining Sporting, Ronny struggled to gain first-choice status: in the 2006–07 season, he battled with internationals

Marco Caneira Marco António Simões Caneira (born 9 February 1979) is a Portuguese former professional footballer. Preferably a central defender, he was equally at ease on the right or left flank. A youth graduate at Sporting CP, he started his career at t ...

and Rodrigo Tello to finish with 12 Primeira Liga appearances, although he would score a memorable goal in an 88th minute 1–0 away win against Associação Naval 1º de Maio on 26 November 2006 – his

free kick A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play. Association football In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...

was unofficially measured according to some sources and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

at 211 km/h. Ronny began the 2007–08 campaign as starter, but with the arrival in January of Leandro Grimi from

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

lost his position, playing just six games in his third year. For 2009–10, only being third or fourth-choice at Sporting, he was loaned to

U.D. Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria, commonly known as União de Leiria (), is a Portuguese football club based in Leiria, central Portugal. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home matches at Estádio Dr. ...

, recently returned to the top division.

Hertha BSC

At the end of the loan, after helping Leiria stay up whilst contributing with three goals, Ronny transferred to German second tier club Hertha BSC, where his older brother Raffael was also playing. He made his

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

debut on 17 September 2011, coming on as a substitute for

Patrick Ebert Patrick Ebert (born 17 March 1987) is a German professional footballer who plays as a right winger. Club career Hertha Born in Potsdam, East Germany, Ebert started playing football for TuS Gaarden in Kiel at the age of four. He completed his de ...

in the last minutes of a 2–2 home draw against

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded as ...

. For

2012–13 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 ...

, Ronny moved into a more attacking midfield position, left vacant after his sibling's departure. He scored a career-best 18 goals precisely in that season, helping his team return to the top flight after one year out. On 31 August 2016, Ronny and

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

Michael Preetz Michael Preetz (born 17 August 1967) is a German former professional footballer who played as a forward. He spent his whole career in Germany, playing for Fortuna Düsseldorf, 1. FC Saarbrücken, MSV Duisburg and SG Wattenscheid 09, but he is m ...

mutually agreed to terminate the former's contract one year in advance, after he became surplus to requirements under head coach

Pál Dárdai Pál Dárdai (born 16 March 1976) is a Hungarian retired footballer who played mainly as a defensive midfielder, and last coached Hertha BSC. In a 20-year professional career, he played for over a decade with the same club, Hertha BSC, in Ger ...

Fortaleza

On 17 March 2017, more than one decade after leaving for Europe, 30-year-old Ronny returned to his homeland and signed with local

Fortaleza Esporte Clube Fortaleza Esporte Clube, usually known as Fortaleza, is primarily a football club, but is active in other sports such as futsal, handball and basketball. Fortaleza Esporte Clube is based in Fortaleza, capital of the State of Ceará, Brazil. The ...

, choosing to wear jersey number 52 as an homage to his father Caetano, who had that age at the time and was also a footballer. Alongside seven other players, he left the club on 10 November.

Personal life

Ronny's older brother, Raffael, was also a footballer. 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 ...

, he represented most notably Borussia Mönchengladbach and Hertha, where the pair played together for two seasons.

Honours

Club

Sporting *

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 ...

: 2006–07, 2007–08 *

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 ...

: 2007,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

International

Brazil Under-17 *

FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fédération ...

: 2003

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ronny 1986 births Living people Sportspeople from Fortaleza Brazilian footballers Association football defenders Association football midfielders Campeonato Brasileiro Série C players Sport Club Corinthians Paulista players Fortaleza Esporte Clube players Primeira Liga players Sporting CP footballers U.D. Leiria players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Hertha BSC players Brazilian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Germany Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Germany