Diogo Luís Santo (born 26 May 1987), known simply as Diogo, is a Brazilian retired 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 played as a striker. After starting out at Portuguesa, he spent most of his career in the

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

with

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

– having signed in 2008 – and in the

Thai League 1 The Thai League (, pronounced as ') or Thai League 1 (, pronounced as '), often referred to as T1, is the highest level of the Thai football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Thai L ...

with

Buriram United Buriram United Football Club () is a Thai professional football club based in Buriram. The club has played at the top level of Thai football for the majority of their existence and competes in the Thai League 1. The club was founded in 1970 as P ...

Club career

Brazil

Born in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

, Diogo started his football career at

Associação Portuguesa de Desportos Associação Portuguesa de Desportos, commonly referred to as Portuguesa or Lusa, is a Brazilian professional Association football, football club based in the district of Pari (district of São Paulo), Pari, São Paulo, that competes in the Ca ...

. He quickly made a name for himself at the club, breaking into the first team in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

and contributing largely to a promotion to the Série A, scoring 18 goals in 28 games – season's best – and being voted the competition's best player. It was this form which initially prompted Brazilian under-20 coach Nélson Rodrigues to include Diogo in his team (he had already played in previous national youth sides). In

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

he had his first taste of top-flight football with Portuguesa, and showed early good form with six goals in 13 matches. Early in the same year, president Manuel da Lupa said he was as good as if not better than

AC Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

's teenage sensation

Alexandre Pato Alexandre Rodrigues da Silva (; born 2 September 1989), commonly known as Alexandre Pato () or just Pato, is a Brazilian former professional association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Pato began ...

; he added that the player had only shown 50% of his capability due to consistent injuries. In July 2008, several teams had been attracted to Diogo's talents, and the player revealed his desire to play his trade in Europe after longtime admirers

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

were joined by

ACF Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

in bidding for his services. He had been monitored by the former's scouting department for more than two years, and offers included a £9,000,000 one, promptly rejected by Portuguesa; Arsenal manager

Arsène Wenger Arsène Charles Ernest Wenger (born 22 October 1949) is a French former association football, football Manager (association football), manager and football player, player who is currently serving as FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development. ...

also publicly stated that he had tried to sign him once, as a 16-year-old.

Olympiacos

Olympiacos F.C. Olympiacos Football Club ( ), known simply as Olympiacos or Olympiacos Piraeus, is a Greek professional Association football, football club based in Piraeus. Part of the major Sports club, multi-sport club Olympiacos CFP (''Olympiakós Sýnde ...

also became interested and, in a widely documented and somewhat controversial period of negotiation, Diogo finally signed for the Greek club in August 2008, for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

9 million and 70% of the player's rights. After passing his medical, he agreed to a five-year contract. Diogo made his first appearance in the season's opener, against

Asteras Tripolis F.C. Asteras Tripolis Football Club (), currently known as Asteras AKTOR for sponsorship reasons, commonly referred to as Asteras, is a Greek professional Association football, football club based in the city of Tripoli, Greece, Tripoli in Arcadia (re ...

on 30 August 2008. On 6 September he scored from the penalty spot against

Ionikos FC Ionikos Football Club () is a Greek football club based in Nikaia, Greece, competing in the Gamma Ethniki. It is part of the multi-sport club Ionikos Nikaias. From 1989 to 2007 Ionikos spent 16 out of 18 seasons in the Alpha Ethniki/Super Leag ...

, in a friendly. In the second round, he netted the game's only goal at Xanthi FC. During his first campaign he also showcased his good heading ability by scoring many of his goals from headers, being at one point the player with more goals with that specific body part at four. In that year's

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, Diogo scored twice in the 5–0 home victory over

FC Nordsjælland Football Club Nordsjælland, commonly known as FC Nordsjælland, Nordsjælland () or FCN, is a professional Danish association football, football team from the North Zealand town of Farum. Founded as ''Farum Boldklub'' from the merger of the to ...

on 2 October, adding two more in a 5–1 defeat of

S.L. Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904, as ''Sport Lisboa'', Benfica is one of the " ...

the following month, also in the group stage and at

Karaiskakis Stadium The Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium (), commonly referred to as the Karaiskakis Stadium (, ), is a Association football, football stadium in Piraeus, Attica, Greece, and the home ground of the Piraeus football club Olympiacos F.C., Olympiacos. It i ...

. Hence, heightened rumours of a big-money transfer to Europe's elite – and again to England – surfaced, whilst the player was ranked seventh (out of 50) in

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

's list of ''Footballers Transfer Target List''; eventually, the

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

team won the double. Further interest arose in October 2008, now from three other

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

sides,

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

, Chelsea and

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. The latter's coach, Rafa Benítez, again declared interest in the player in March of the following year, preparing to offer £12 million to acquire his services.

Anfield Anfield is a Association football, football stadium in the area of Anfield (suburb), Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since its formation in 1892. The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,276, making it the ...

scouts had been said to have checked on him, seeing him as a perfect replacement for the departed

Robbie Keane Robert David Keane (born 8 July 1980) is an Irish professional football coach and former player who played as a striker and is currently the head coach of Ferencváros. Keane served as captain of the Republic of Ireland from March 2006 until h ...

; Benítez then loaned

Sebastián Leto Sebastián Eduardo Leto (born 30 August 1986) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player. He is the current manager of Greek Super League club A.E. Kifisia. Club career Lanús Born in Alejandro Korn, Leto began his caree ...

to Olympiacos, further fueling rumours that the player would be included in a swap deal, but nothing came to fruition, with Leto instead moving to

Panathinaikos FC Panathinaikos Football Club ( ), known as Panathinaikos, or by its full name, and the name of its parent sports club, Panathinaikos A.O. or PAO (; ''Panathinaïkós Athlitikós Ómilos'', ), is a Greek professional Association football, footbal ...

. Diogo's second season was disastrous for both him and the team, suffering several injuries which limited to just slightly more than half of the games, scoring just two goals and losing his place in the starting lineup to Kostantinos Mitroglou. He started

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 ...

by netting twice against

Besa Kavajë Besa or BESA may refer to: Arts & entertainment * ''Besa'' (newspaper), a newspaper published in Albania * ''Besa'' (TV series), a Serbian-British television series produced by Adrenalin and Red Planet Pictures * ''The Besa'', a novel by Albanian ...

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

in a 5–0 away win (11–1 on aggregate) in the Europa League. In the competition's next round, however, against

Maccabi Tel Aviv FC Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club (; ''Moadon Kaduregel Maccabi Tel Aviv'') is an Israeli professional association football, football club from Tel Aviv and part of the Maccabi Tel Aviv, Maccabi Tel Aviv Sport Club. Founded in 1906 in Jaffa as t ...

, he was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

after punching opposing

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Liran Strauber Liran Strauber (or Shtrauber, ; born 20 August 1974) is a former Israeli association footballer who played as a goalkeeper. At international level, Strauber was capped at under-17 and under-21, and played eight times for the senior Israel na ...

, in a 1–0 away loss that also meant the Greeks' elimination on the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

Back to Brazil

Diogo returned to Brazil on 19 August 2010, being loaned to

CR Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; ), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian multi sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea. It was founded and named after the Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo n ...

. Six months later, he joined

Santos FC Santos Futebol Clube () is a Brazilian sports club based in Vila Belmiro, a ''bairro'' in the city of Santos, São Paulo, Santos. It plays in the Campeonato Paulista, the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo's premier State football lea ...

also on loan, failing to perform overall and returning to Olympiacos in January 2012, being excluded from the squad later that year. On 6 March 2013, Diogo returned to his first club Portuguesa.

Buriram United

On 31 December 2014, Diogo signed a two-year contract with

Buriram United F.C. Buriram United Football Club () is a Thai professional football club based in Buriram. The club has played at the top level of Thai football for the majority of their existence and competes in the Thai League 1. The club was founded in 1970 as P ...

from the

. He scored in his debut on 24 January 2015, helping his new team to defeat

Bangkok Glass F.C. BG Pathum United Football Club () is a Thai professional football club based in Pathum Thani province and is managed by BG Sports Company Limited which is a subsidiary of Bangkok Glass Public Company Limited. BG Pathum United participates in ...

1–0 in the

Kor Royal Cup Kor Royal Cup (), known as the Yai Cup () until 1963, was the highest level of club football competition which competed in the tournament in Thailand from 1916 to 1995. It was founded by the Football Association of Thailand in 1916. Department of ...

. Diogo scored 45 goals in 51 competitive games in his first season, as Buriram became the first Asian side to win five titles in one year. He also managed to finish top scorer of the domestic league twice, scoring 133 times overall which was a record at the organisation.

Johor Darul Ta'zim

On 3 January 2019,

Johor Darul Ta'zim F.C. Johor Darul Ta'zim Football Club, or simply JDT, is a professional football club based in Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia, that competes in the Malaysia Super League, the top tier of Malaysian football. Founded in 1972 as PKENJ FC, the club was ...

announced the signing of Diogo for an approximate fee of €1.5 million, the highest ever paid by a Malaysian club. In December 2023, after having won several honours including three

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

– he also returned to Thailand to represent BG Pathum United F.C. before heading back to the

Sultan Ibrahim Stadium The Sultan Ibrahim Stadium is a football stadium in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia. It is named in honor of the state's current ruler, Sultan Ibrahim ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar. As the new home of Johor Darul Ta'zim of the Malaysia Super L ...

in 2022 – the 36-year-old announced his retirement.

International career

Diogo was called to train with the Brazil under-23 team by manager

Dunga Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri (born 31 October 1963), known as Dunga (), is a Brazilian football manager and former professional player who played as a defensive midfielder. Under his captaincy, Brazil won the 1994 FIFA World Cup and he lifte ...

in late 2007. He was supposed to have been selected for the

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

earlier that year, but was dropped from the squad after breaking his arm.

Career statistics

Honours

Olympiacos *

: 2008–09, 2011–12,

2012–13 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 ...

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

: 2008–09, 2011–12 Santos *

Campeonato Paulista The Campeonato Paulista Série A1, commonly known as Campeonato Paulista, nicknamed Paulistão, is the top-flight professional state football league in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. Run by the São Paulo State Football Federation (FPF), ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

Buriram United *

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Thai FA Cup The Thai FA Cup (), known officially as The Football Association of Thailand Cup, is a football cup competition in Thailand. Thai FA Cup is an annual knockout association football competition in men's domestic football. It was held between 1974 a ...

Thai League Cup The League Cup () is a association football, football cup competition in Thailand. It is also known as Hilux Revo Cup for sponsorship reasons. History Thai League Cup was started by Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Motor (Thailand) in the name of ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Thailand Champions Cup The Thailand Champions Cup (continuing Kor Royal Cup, a different competition from the Thai Super Cup) is a single-game competition between the winners of previous Thai League 1 and Thai FA Cup, organised by the Football Association of Thailand. ...

Mekong Club Championship The Toyota Mekong Club Championship was an ASEAN Football Federation, ASEAN club competition for men's association football clubs. Five teams entered as respective domestic league winners from ''Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam''. ...

Toyota Premier Cup The Toyota Premier Cup was a single-game cup competition organized by the Toyota and Football Association of Thailand and was first played in 2011. It features the winners of the Thai League Cup and an invited team from the J1 League. The compet ...

Johor Darul Ta'zim *

Malaysia Super League The Malaysia Super League (), known simply as the Super League (), is the men's top professional Football in Malaysia, football division of the Malaysian football league system. Administered by the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnersh ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Malaysia FA Cup The Malaysia FA Cup () is an annual association football, football competition in Malaysia, established in 1990. It was previously managed by the Football Association of Malaysia, before being transferred to the Football Malaysia LLP, Malaysian ...

Malaysia Cup The Malaysia Cup (), formerly known as Malaya Cup, is an annual football tournament in Malaysia, held at the end of the calendar year. The cup was first held in 1921. Despite its prestige and popularity as the country's oldest cup tournament, i ...

Piala Sumbangsih The Malaysian Charity Shield (English: Charity Cup), also known as Piala Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah () or Piala Sumbangsih, is a Malaysian football super cup competition. It is the curtain raiser match to the new Malaysian football season, pittin ...

BG Pathum United *Thai League 1:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

*Thailand Champions Cup:

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Individual *Thai League 1 Top Scorer:

*Thai League 1 Most Valuable Player:

FAM Football Awards The Football Association of Malaysia National Football Awards are presented to the best football local and foreign players and coaches. They have been awarded since the 2005–06 Malaysia Super League season. Sponsorship Since the establishment o ...

– Best Foreign Player:

* Malaysia Super League Team of the Season:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Diogo 1987 births Living people 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen Brazilian men's footballers Footballers from São Paulo Men's association football forwards Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Associação Portuguesa de Desportos players CR Flamengo footballers Santos FC players SE Palmeiras players Super League Greece players Olympiacos F.C. players Thai League 1 players Buriram United F.C. players BG Pathum United F.C. players Malaysia Super League players Johor Darul Ta'zim F.C. players Copa Libertadores–winning players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Thailand Expatriate men's footballers in Malaysia Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Thailand Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Malaysia