José Eduardo Bischofe de Almeida or simply Zé Eduardo, also known as Zé Love (born 29 October 1987), is a Brazilian

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 last played for

Iguatu Iguatu is a city in Ceará, a Brazilian State, with a population of 103,074 (2020 est.). Edinaldo Lavor is the city's mayor. History A village of Quixelôs Indians existed at this site before the arrival of the Portuguese. In 1707 the Society o ...

. Zé Eduardo holds an

Italian passport An Italian passport () is issued upon request to an Italian nationality law, Italian citizen for the purpose of international travel. It is valid for 10, 5 or 3 years, depending on the applicant's age. Its Biometric passports, biometric version ...

Career

Early career

Zé Eduardo started his professional career in

Palmeiras The Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional association football, football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes (district of São Paulo), Perdizes. Palmeiras is ...

. During his stay at the club, José Eduardo earned the moniker of "Zé Love" and "God of Goalscorer" in a comparison with Palmeiras' standout striker Vagner Love because of his "very impressive" goal scoring stats. After an unremarkable stint at the São Paulo club, Zé Eduardo played for

Portuguesa Santista Portuguesa is a Portuguese language, Portuguese, Catalan language, Catalan, and Spanish language, Spanish feminine adjective meaning "Portuguese". It may also refer to: Places *Portuguesa (state), one of the 23 states of Venezuela *Portuguesa (Ri ...

Atlético Paranaense Club Athletico Paranaense (abbreviated CAP, commonly known as Athletico Paranaense and up to 2019 known as Atlético Paranaense) is a Brazilian football team from the city of Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná, founded o ...

, Cruzeiro (who bought 70% of the player's economic rights for R$ 300,000),

Bragantino Red Bull Bragantino () is a Brazilian football club based in Bragança Paulista, São Paulo. It competes in the Série A, the top tier of the Brazilian football league system, as well as in the Campeonato Paulista Série A1, the highest level ...

(2006

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), ...

Ipatinga Ipatinga is a Municipalities of Brazil, Brazilian municipality located in the interior of the Federative units of Brazil, state of Minas Gerais, in the Southeast Region, Brazil, Southeast Region of Brazil. Situated in the Vale do Rio Doce (meso ...

(April – May 2006), Villa Nova (2006

Taça Minas Gerais The Taça Minas Gerais is a traditional football tournament played in the Minas Gerais state in Brazil. From 1973 through 1977 and then in 1980 and 1981, was a separate competition. In 1979 and from 1982 to 1987, it was played as one of the phases ...

Sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

(January – August 2007), Grêmio (2007

Copa FGF The Copa Federação Gaúcha de Futebol, commonly known as the Copa FGF, is an annual cup competition organized by the Rio Grande do Sul Federação Gaúcha de Futebol, state football federation for clubs that are in the first, second and third d ...

), Ferroviária (2008

Campeonato Paulista Série A2 Campeonato Paulista Série A2 is the second tier of the professional state football league in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is run by the São Paulo State Football Federation (FPF). Clubs 2025 Série A2 List of champions There a ...

) and

Fortaleza Fortaleza ( ; ; ) is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeastern Brazil. It is Brazil's 4th largest city—Fortaleza surpassed Salvador, Bahia, Salvador in 2022 census with a population of slightly over 2.4 mi ...

( 2008 Brasileiro Série B), also to no success . In December 2008, Zé Eduardo joined São Caetano's squad for the

2009 Campeonato Paulista The 2009 Campeonato Paulista de Futebol Profissional da Primeira Divisão - Série A1 was the 108th season of São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Pa ...

, scoring only one goal for the team, but proving himself to be a valuable player for the team. After a short stint in América from

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...

, Zé Eduardo joined

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

, where he drew the attention of the larger clubs after scoring three goals in nine matches.

Santos

Joining Santos with no fanfare, Zé Eduardo went on to find great glory at the Vila Belmiro club, at first on loan. Starting off as a substitute, Eduardo played remarkably well, eventually earning a place in the starting 11. Winning the Paulistão and the

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, ...

, Zé Eduardo was one of the best players of the Santos squad, scoring a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

against

Fluminense Fluminense Football Club () is a Brazilian sports club based in the neighbourhood of Laranjeiras, in Rio de Janeiro, being the oldest football club in the state since its foundation in 1902. It competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, th ...

at Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos, while Maracaña was under construction. Zé Eduardo was the team joint-fourth-scorer of the team in the Paulistão with 6 goals (along with Wesley), behind

Neymar Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (; born 5 February 1992), also known as Neymar Júnior or simply Neymar, is a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a left winger, attacking midfielder or Forward (association foo ...

, André Felipe, Ganso. In the

2010 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The 2010 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A was the 54th edition of the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top-level of professional football in Brazil. It began on May 8 and ended on December 5. Flamengo came as the defending champion having won th ...

, Zé Eduardo scored 10 times, just 7 goals short of Neymar. Zé Eduardo's goals were ranked second in Santos and joint-8th in the league. After playing for several teams, Zé Eduardo accepted an offer from Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, signing a five-year contract on 23 January 2011. It was impossible for him to join Genoa before the closing of the international transfer window because his Italian passport issuance was delayed. Consequently, Genoa allowed him to play for his former club Santos until 22 June (while during that 6 months his contract was owned by

FC Lugano FC Lugano is a Swiss professional football club based in Lugano. The club was refounded as AC Lugano in 2004 as a result of relegation and the financial situation of FC Lugano, which was founded in 1908. In 2008, the club reverted to its origina ...

). On that day, he started for Santos in the second leg of the 2011 Copa Libertadores Finals, which Santos won 2–1 over Uruguayan powerhouse

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (), more commonly referred to as Peñarol, is a Uruguayan professional football club based in Montevideo. The club currently competes in the Uruguayan Primera División, the highest tier in Uruguayan football. The nam ...

. Santos received R$ 6.088 million (about €2.7M), as Santos owned 60% of the player's economic rights. Genoa announced that they paid €5.4 million to its sister club Lugano in its 2011 annual financial report.

Genoa

Zé Eduardo was formally signed by Genoa in the summer of 2011 and his contract was recorded by

Lega Serie A The Lega Nazionale Professionisti Serie A (Italian for ''National Professionals League Serie A''), commonly known as LNPA or Lega Serie A (Serie A League), is the governing body that runs the major professional Association football, football com ...

on 3 August 2011. He featured in a pre-season friendly, but after a long intensive season in Brazil, he was injured and trained away from the main squad. Zé Eduardo made his official club debut on 2 December 2011, in a 2–0 defeat by

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. He had a medical with

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

in late January 2012 but the loan deal collapsed. Returning to Italy, he made four appearances as a substitute. The first on 12 February. He played no games in March and did not appear again until 29 April 2012, again as a substitute. His squad number 9 was taken away and given to Italian international

Alberto Gilardino Alberto Gilardino (; born 5 July 1982) is an Italian professional football manager and a former player who played as a striker. He was most recently the manager of club Genoa. A prolific goalscorer, in Gilardino's early career he was compared ...

with Zé Eduardo being given the number 57 shirt; a number usually taken by players left outside the main squad. Zé Eduardo refused a trial with

A.C. 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 ...

on 22 August 2012, which would have seen him replace the injured

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 ...

. Zé Eduardo is quoted as saying, "I have won one

Libertadores ''Libertadores'' (, "Liberators") were the principal leaders of the Spanish American wars of independence from Spain and of the movement in support of Brazilian independence from Portugal. They are named that way in contrast with the ''Conquistad ...

and two Campeonatos Paulistas with Santos, I don't do tests". On 20 January 2014, he was signed by

Coritiba Coritiba Foot Ball Club, commonly known as Coritiba and colloquially referred to as heCoxa, is a Brazilian football club from Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Founded in 1909 by German immigrants, it is the olde ...

on loan until the end of the season.

Career statistics

Honours

;Villa Nova *

: 2006 ;Sport *

Campeonato Pernambucano The Campeonato Pernambucano is the top-flight professional state football league in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. It is run by the Pernambuco Football Federation (FPF). History The first edition of the Campeonato Pernambucano was played i ...

: 2007 ;Santos *

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

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 ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ze Eduardo 1987 births Living people Brazilian men's footballers Footballers from São Paulo (state) Men's association football forwards SE Palmeiras players Associação Atlética Portuguesa (Santos) players Club Athletico Paranaense players Cruzeiro EC players Ipatinga Futebol Clube players Sport Club do Recife players Villa Nova Atlético Clube players Associação Ferroviária de Esportes players Fortaleza Esporte Clube players São Caetano Futebol players América Futebol Clube (MG) players ABC Futebol Clube players Santos FC players Coritiba Foot Ball Club players Goiás Esporte Clube players Genoa CFC players Siena FC SSD players Al-Shaab CSC players Al Faisaly FC players Oeste Futebol Clube players Sri Pahang FC players Brasiliense FC players Shanghai Shenxin F.C. players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Campeonato Brasileiro Série C players Serie A players Chinese Super League players Saudi Pro League players UAE Pro League players Malaysia Super League players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in China Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia Expatriate men's footballers in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate men's footballers in Malaysia Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in China Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Malaysia People from Promissão Copa Libertadores–winning players 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen