Cláudio Mejolaro (born 8 January 1982), commonly known as Pitbull, 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 lea ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for

Associação Desportiva Cabofriense Associação Desportiva Cabofriense, commonly known as Cabofriense, is a Brazilian professional association football club based in Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro. The team plays in Série D, the fourth tier of the Brazilian football league system, ...

Football career

After fine displays at Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense, Pitbull was acquired by

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...

in the January 2005

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

. Unable to settle with the club, he was loaned several times for the duration of his contract, mainly in that country. On 4 February 2007, Pitbull played his first

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

match with Académica de Coimbra, against

Associação Naval 1º de Maio Associação Naval 1º de Maio or Associação Naval 1893, commonly known as Naval, was a Portuguese Association football, football club based in Figueira da Foz, Coimbra District. Founded on 1 May 1893, it last played in the Division of Honour i ...

. For the 2007–08 season he was loaned again, this time to

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to: People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Sofia Vitória (bor ...

, where he was the team's top scorer as they overachieved despite facing serious financial problems; in March 2008, he helped the '' Sadinos'' to win the newly created League Cup in a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

against

Sporting Clube de Portugal Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

, also being named the tournament's best player. In July 2008, alongside teammate João Paulo Andrade, Pitbull was loaned to

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n side

FC Rapid București Fotbal Club Rapid 1923, commonly known as Rapid București () or simply as Rapid, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in Bucharest, that competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1923 by employees of the Grivi� ...

, on a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

-long move. After that sole

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

campaign he returned to Portugal, being loaned for the seventh time by Porto, to

C.S. Marítimo Club Sport Marítimo MH M (), commonly known as Marítimo or Marítimo da Madeira, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in the city of Funchal, on the island of Madeira. Established in 1910, Marítimo is best known for its football team ...

. Pitbull returned to Setúbal for a second spell in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, scoring nine goals in 26 games to help the team again avoid relegation. In late January 2012 he switched clubs and countries again, joining

Manisaspor Manisaspor is a Turkish professional football club located in the city of Manisa. Originally formed in 1931 as Sakaryaspor, the club changed its name to Manisaspor on 15 June 1965.Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

Honours

;Grêmio *

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil () is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and it is the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de Portugal, ...

: 2001 ;Setúbal *

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...

: 2007–08

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitbull, Claudio 1982 births Living people Brazilian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Grêmio FBPA players Esporte Clube Juventude players Santos FC players Fluminense FC players Esporte Clube Bahia players Associação Desportiva Cabofriense players Primeira Liga players FC Porto players Académica de Coimbra (football) players Vitória F.C. players C.S. Marítimo players Gil Vicente F.C. players Saudi Pro League players Al-Ittihad Club (Jeddah) players Liga I players FC Rapid București players Süper Lig players Manisaspor footballers Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Footballers from Porto Alegre 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen