Weligton Robson Pena de Oliveira (born 26 August 1979), known simply as Weligton, is a Brazilian former

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 played as a central defender. He started playing professional football already well in his 20s, and spent the vast majority of his career with

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

. He also competed in Portugal and Switzerland.

Club career

Weligton was born in Fernandópolis, São Paulo. He started his professional career with Paraná Clube at the age of already 23, joining Portugal's

F.C. Penafiel Futebol Clube de Penafiel ( or ) is a Portuguese Association football, football club founded on 8 February 1951 and based in the city of Penafiel, Portugal, Penafiel. Brief history Penafiel first reached the Portuguese Liga, first division in Po ...

on 13 August 2003 with the club in the second division. After helping it achieve promotion to the

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

, he was first choice for a further two seasons, with relegation befalling in

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 ...

. Subsequently, Weligton signed with

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zürich, commonly referred to as simply GC, GCZ, or Grasshoppers, is a multisports club based in Zürich, Switzerland. The oldest and best known department of the club is its football team. With 27 titles, Grasshopper holds the ...

. After just one season in Switzerland, he was loaned to Spanish second level side

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, ...

, and was an essential defensive unit in another career promotion, only missing four league games out of 42. The move was made permanent on 18 June 2008, as Weligton agreed to a four-year deal. He scored his first goal for the Andalusians on 17 May of the following year against Sporting de Gijón, in a 1–2 away loss. An undisputed starter again in 2009–10, Weligton suffered a serious ankle injury on 14 March 2010 in a 0–1 defeat at UD Almería, going on to miss the rest of the campaign. He made his 100th league appearance for the club on 16 October, alongside teammate

Apoño Antonio Galdeano Benítez (born 13 February 1984), known as Apoño, is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a central midfielder. A player with both hard-working and playmaking skills, he was also a penalty kick specialist. He amassed La ...

, in a 1–4 home loss against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

. After the summer signing of Joris Mathijsen, Weligton found himself more often than not as a substitute. His first league appearance in 2011–12 was on 11 December 2011, in a 1−1 home draw against CA Osasuna. On 15 May 2012, he renewed his contract for a further year. Weligton broke his collarbone in a 2013 pre-season

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

with

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

after a shoulder barge from opposing player Christian Benteke. He was sidelined for several weeks, and on 8 October he agreed to a further two-year extension to keep him at the

La Rosaleda Stadium Estadio La Rosaleda (; literally The Rose Garden) is a football stadium in the city of Málaga, in Andalucia, southern Spain. It is the home stadium of Málaga CF in Segunda División and was previously that of the Club Deportivo Málaga, of wh ...

until June 2015. Weligton missed the vast majority of the 2016–17 season, due to a

meniscus Meniscus may refer to: *Meniscus (anatomy), crescent-shaped fibrocartilaginous structure that partly divides a joint cavity *Meniscus (liquid) The meniscus (plural: ''menisci'', from the Greek for "crescent") is the curve in the upper surface ...

injury to his right knee. In May 2017, the 37-year-old announced his retirement from football.

References

External links

Málaga official profile
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weligton 1979 births Living people People from Fernandópolis Brazilian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Paraná Clube players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players F.C. Penafiel players Swiss Super League players Grasshopper Club Zürich players La Liga players Segunda División players Málaga CF players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Footballers from São Paulo (state)