Robson Ponte (born 6 November 1976) 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 ...

who played as 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 spent most of his career at Bayer 04 Leverkusen in Germany and

Urawa Red Diamonds , colloquially Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, is a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan. The club plays in the J ...

in Japan.

Club career

Ponte was born in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

. After impressing in a friendly match between his club Guarani and Bayer 04 Leverkusen in early 1999, he was offered a contract by

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 ...

club in August 1999. He played for three seasons at Leverkusen. In the month of his transfer, German techno label

Kompakt Kompakt (Labelcode: LC 12012) is a Cologne-based electronic music independent record label and vinyl/CD distributor, owned by Wolfgang Voigt, Michael Mayer and Jürgen Paape. They specialize in microhouse and minimal techno, and are known for ...

released a single entitled 'Robson Ponte'. Before the 2001–02 season started, Ponte moved on loan to another Bundesliga side

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

. At Wolfsburg, he managed 61 appearances in two seasons and scored 13 goals. Ponte signed on free transfer with Japanese giants

before his contract with Leverkusen expired in July 2005. He, an all-around midfielder, took both penalty kicks and corners for Urawa for five seasons. In 2007, he received the Most Valuable Player award of the season. Ponte ended his playing career with foreign professional leagues in 2010 and returned his country Brazil to spend his last years. He joined Grêmio Barueri on 26 May 2011.

Career statistics

Awards and honours

Club

Urawa Red Diamonds * AFC Champions League: 2007 * J1 League: 2006 * Emperor's Cup: 2005, 2006 *

Japanese Super Cup The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is an annual one-match association football competition in Japan organised by J. League and the Japan Football Association (JFA). This competition serves as the season opener and is played between the r ...

: 2006

Individual

* J. League Most Valuable Player: 2007 * J. League Best Eleven: 2007

References

External links

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Leverkusen who's who
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ponte, Robson Living people 1976 births Footballers from São Paulo Brazilian footballers Brazilian people of Italian descent Association football midfielders Bayer 04 Leverkusen players VfL Wolfsburg players Urawa Red Diamonds players Bundesliga players Guarani FC players Clube Atlético Juventus players J1 League Player of the Year winners J1 League players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Brazilian expatriate footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Expatriate footballers in Japan Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany