Matheus Fernandes Siqueira (born 30 June 1998) 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

central midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for Red Bull Bragantino, on loan from Palmeiras.

Club career

Botafogo

Born in

Itaboraí Itaboraí (, ) is a city in the state of Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, that belongs to the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area. It was founded in 1672. In 2020, it had a population of 242,543. Around the year 1000, Tupi-speakin ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, Fernandes represented

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

as a youth. He was called up to the 2016 pre-season with the main squad, but was only promoted to the first team by manager Jair Ventura; late in the year, he renewed his contract until the end of 2019. Fernandes made his senior debut on 28 January 2017, starting in a 1–1

Campeonato Carioca The Campeonato Carioca (Carioca Championship), officially known as Campeonato Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro State Championship), also commonly known as the Cariocão, is the top-flight professional state football league in the Br ...

home draw against

Nova Iguaçu Nova Iguaçu (, ''New Iguaçu'') is a municipality in Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil. Geography Location The city is named after the Iguaçu River that runs through it and empties into Guanabara Bay (not to be confused with the Iguaçu Rive ...

. Four days later he made his

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 ...

debut, replacing Camilo in a 2–1 home win against

Colo-Colo Colo-Colo (), officially Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo, is a Chilean professional football club based in Macul, Santiago. Founded in 1925 by David Arellano, it competes in the Chilean Primera División, from which the club has never been ...

. Fernandes was a regular starter for ''Bota'' during the 2018 campaign, appearing in 32 league matches (40 overall) and winning the year's

. He scored his first professional goal on 10 May of that year, netting the opener in a 1–1

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

home draw against Audax Italiano (3–2 aggregate win).

Palmeiras

On 19 December 2018, Fernandes signed a five-year contract with Palmeiras, for a rumoured fee of R$ 15 million. A backup to regular starters

Felipe Melo Felipe Melo de Carvalho (born 26 June 1983), known as Felipe Melo, is a Brazilian former professional association football, footballer who played as a defensive midfielder or centre-back. He began his career with Brazilian teams Clube de Rega ...

and Bruno Henrique, he was not registered for the year's

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), ...

, and only made his debut for the club on 1 May, replacing Moisés in a 1–1 away draw against CSA. Fernandes started to feature more regularly after Moisés' departure to

Shandong Luneng Shandong Taishan Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Jinan, Shandong, that competes in . Shandong Taishan plays its home matches at the Jinan Olympic Sports Center Stadium, located within Lixia District. Their c ...

, and scored his first goal on 1 December 2019, but in a 1–3 home loss against

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 ...

Valladolid (loan)

On 31 January 2020, just hours after signing for Barcelona, Fernandes joined fellow

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

side

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid (), is a Spanish professional List of football clubs in Spain, football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León that will compete from the 2025–26 season in the . The club ...

on loan from Palmeiras. He only made his debut abroad on 20 June, starting in a 0–1 loss at

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

Barcelona

On 31 January 2020,

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

announced that they had reached agreement with Palmeiras for the transfer of Fernandes, who would join the Catalan club ahead of the 2020–21 season at the end of September, after completing his loan spell with Real Valladolid. ''Barça'' paid a fee of

€ 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 ...

7 million plus €3 million on add-ons, and the player agreed to a five-year contract with the club. On 24 November, he made his first and only appearance for Barcelona's first team and also in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

when he replaced Pedri for the final 17 minutes during a 4–0 away victory against

Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society ...

in a Champions League group stage match. On 17 April 2021, Matheus won his first and only trophy with Barcelona after his side defeated

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

4–0 in the Copa del Rey final. Although he didn't feature for a single minute in the competition, he was considered as a winner as he was named in the matchday squads in two of the matches. On 29 June 2021, his contract was terminated by Barcelona.

Return to Palmeiras

On 9 July 2021, Palmeiras signed Matheus for seasons, till 31 December 2025, after his contract with Barcelona was terminated.

International career

Fernandes represented

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

at under-17 and under-20 levels.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Club

Botafogo *

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 ...

Barcelona *

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

: 2020–21 Palmeiras *

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 ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandes, Matheus 1998 births Living people Footballers from Rio de Janeiro (state) Brazilian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas players SE Palmeiras players Copa Libertadores–winning players Club Athletico Paranaense players Red Bull Bragantino players La Liga players Real Valladolid players FC Barcelona players Brazil men's youth international footballers Brazil men's under-20 international footballers People from Itaboraí 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen