Cléber Santana Loureiro (27 June 1981 – 28 November 2016) was 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 ...

who played as a

central 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 won state championships with

Sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

, Vitória, Santos and

Avaí Avaí is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in 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 milli ...

. He also had spells abroad, with

Kashiwa Reysol is a Japanese professional football club based in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Sankyo Frontier Kashiwa Stadium ...

in Japan and Atlético Madrid and Mallorca in Spain. Santana was the captain of the Chapecoense team aboard

LaMia Flight 2933 LaMia Flight 2933 was a charter flight of an Avro RJ85, operated by LaMia, that on 28 November 2016 crashed near Medellín, Colombia, killing 71 of the 77 people on board. The aircraft was transporting the Brazilian Chapecoense football squad a ...

that crashed, killing him and 70 others.

Football career

Born in Abreu e Lima,

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it List of Brazilian states by population, sev ...

, Santana started playing professionally with Sport Club do Recife. He then went on to represent in Brazil Esporte Clube Vitória and

Santos FC Santos Futebol Clube (), commonly known simply as Santos or Santos FC and nicknamed the ''Peixe'' (; "fish"), is a Brazilian sports club based in Vila Belmiro, a '' bairro'' in the city of Santos. It is also the team with the most goals i ...

, punctuated by a stint with J1 League's

in 2005. In July 2007, Santana was signed from Santos by Atlético Madrid, on a three-year contract worth

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

6 million. Although not an undisputed starter, he still contributed with 23

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

matches as the ''Colchoneros'' returned to the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

after a 12-year

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, being played mostly after

Maniche Nuno Ricardo de Oliveira Ribeiro (born 11 November 1977), known as Maniche (), is a Portuguese retired professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. He played top flight football in Portugal, Russia, England, Spain, Italy and Ge ...

's loan departure to

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is ...

in January 2008. For the 2008–09 season, Santana was loaned to fellow

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

club RCD Mallorca. On 9 November 2008 he scored his first goal for the Balearic Islands team, in a 3–3 home draw against Athletic Bilbao, and finished the campaign (in which he featured heavily, alongside another player loaned by Atlético,

José Manuel Jurado José Manuel Jurado Marín (born 29 June 1986) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. He played for both major teams in Madrid during his career, Real and Atlético, albeit with no success for the former ...

) with five, which also included the 2–1 winner against already crowned champions

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Found ...

on 17 May 2009, and a solo effort the following week, a 3–1 triumph at Real Madrid. Cléber then returned to Atlético, being used sparingly but managing to net in a 2–2 home draw against

UD Almería Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as ''Almería Club de Fútbol'' until 2001, when it was renamed ''Unión D ...

, on 23 September 2009. In late January of the following year, even though he had renewed his contract until June 2012, he returned to his country, signing with São Paulo FC. On 21 September 2012, Santana was announced at Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, claiming the team could "not afford to think about relegation" even though it was playing below the general expectations – going on to finish in 11th position. He signed a two-year contract, and the

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

side bought 70% of his rights; he scored on his official debut two days later, against Atlético Clube Goianiense for the Série A. In the following years, Santana represented Avaí Futebol Clube in the Série B, Criciúma Esporte Clube in that level and also Série A and Associação Chapecoense de Futebol in the top division. He captained the latter, helping the Santa Catarina-based team to the finals of the 2016 Copa Sudamericana.

Death

On 28 November 2016, whilst travelling with Chapecoense to the aforementioned finals, 35-year-old Santana was among the fatalities of the

accident in the Colombian village of Cerro Gordo,

La Unión, Antioquia La Unión is a town and municipality in the Colombian department of Antioquia. It is part of the subregion of Eastern Antioquia. Climate La Unión has a relatively cold subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a ma ...

Career statistics

Honours

Sport * Copa Nordeste: 2000 * Campeonato Pernambucano: 2000 Vitória *

Campeonato Baiano The Campeonato Baiano is the football league of the state of Bahia, Brazil. The championship has been played since 1905 without interruption. 2020 format First stage: 10 teams are included in one group, playing once only against all teams i ...

: 2004 Santos * Campeonato Paulista: 2006, 2007 Atlético Madrid * UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2007 *

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

: Runner-up 2009–10 Avaí *

Campeonato Catarinense The Campeonato Catarinense de Futebol, known as Campeonato Catarinense or simply Catarinense, is the main competition of association football from state of Santa Catarina, in Brazil. History The Campeonato Catarinense top level has had several ...

: 2012 Chapecoense * Copa Sudamericana:

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 of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

(posthumously) *

: 2016

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Santana, Cleber 1981 births 2016 deaths Brazilian footballers Association football midfielders Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Sport Club do Recife players Esporte Clube Vitória players Santos FC players São Paulo FC players Club Athletico Paranaense players Avaí FC players CR Flamengo footballers Criciúma Esporte Clube players Associação Chapecoense de Futebol players J1 League players Kashiwa Reysol players La Liga players Atlético Madrid footballers RCD Mallorca players Brazilian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Japan Expatriate footballers in Spain Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Footballers killed in the LaMia Flight 2933 crash