Felipe Melo with Tomáš Ujfaluši at Galatasaray |
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Felipe Melo de Carvalho | ||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | June 26, 1983 | ||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Volta Redonda, Brazil | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Playing position | Defensive Midfielder | ||||||||||||||
| Club information | |||||||||||||||
| Current club | Galatasaray | ||||||||||||||
| Number | 10 | ||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† | ||||||||||||
| 2001–2003 | Flamengo | 24 | (3) | ||||||||||||
| 2003 | Cruzeiro | 31 | (2) | ||||||||||||
| 2004 | Grêmio | 19 | (3) | ||||||||||||
| 2005 | Mallorca | 8 | (0) | ||||||||||||
| 2005–2007 | Racing Santander | 49 | (6) | ||||||||||||
| 2007–2008 | Almería | 39 | (7) | ||||||||||||
| 2008–2009 | Fiorentina | 29 | (2) | ||||||||||||
| 2009– | Juventus | 53 | (4) | ||||||||||||
| 2011– | → Galatasaray (loan) | 16 | (4) | ||||||||||||
| National team‡ | |||||||||||||||
| 2009– | Brazil | 22 | (2) | ||||||||||||
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Honours
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| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of January 5, 2011. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Felipe Melo de Carvalho (born June 26, 1983 in Volta Redonda) is a Brazilian footballer who currently plays as a midfielder for Turkish Süper Lig team, Galatasaray SK on loan from Serie A team, Juventus.
Melo is a Brazilian international and played in 2010 FIFA World Cup. He arrived in Europe in 2005 and had played for top division clubs likes Fiorentina, Almería, Racing Santander and Mallorca. He also holds Spanish nationality[1][2] since the 2007–08 season, thus not consumed the non-EU registration quota for new signing from abroad of Serie A.
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Felipe Melo began his career for Flamengo, where he made 24 appearances and scored three goals in his two-season spell with the club. Following impressive performances with Flamengo, Melo transferred to Cruzeiro in the summer of 2003.
Melo transferred to Cruzeiro in the summer of 2003, but would remain for just one season. In his single season with Cruziero, Melo did manage to make 31 league appearances, also scoring 2 goals. Following yet another impressive season in Brazil, he was sold to fellow Brazilian club, Grêmio.
Following his transfer to Grêmio, Melo managed to make an additional 19 appearances and adding three goals to his tally in his native Brazil. He would only remain in Porto Alegre for 2004, because Grêmio was relegated that year and the team was dismantled. Felipe Melo was considered, by many fans, one of the players responsible for the relegation, due to his poor performances.
Following several impressive seasons in Brazil, Melo moved to Spain with RCD Mallorca prior to the 2005–06 season. This transfer was short lived however, as Melo made just eight appearances in six months with the club, before transferring permanently to Racing de Santander.
After joining Racing, Melo began to prove his worth again for the club. He would remain in Santander for two seasons, making nearly 50 appearances with five goals for the Spanish club.
In July 2007, Felipe Melo transfer to fellow La Liga club, UD Almería. He was a regular in the clubs' starting eleven and would make 34 league appearances with an impressive seven goals. This outstanding season, led to the attraction of several European clubs, scouting the defensive midfielder, and in the summer of 2008, Melo transferred to the Italian Serie A with ACF Fiorentina.
After a successful first season at Almería, Melo agreed to transfer to Italian side Fiorentina in a reported €13 million transfer for the 2008–09 season.[3][4] This was confirmed after Almería's match against Recreativo de Huelva in La Liga.[5] He made his debut in the first leg of the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League against Slavia Prague, and scored his first goal in a Viola shirt against Atalanta B.C. in the Serie A. After a very impressive debut season in the Serie A, which included 29 appearances and two goals, the Brazilian transferred to Turin giants, Juventus FC.
On June 30, 2009, following a lauded performance at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, Melo signed a new five-year contract with Fiorentina,[6] with a release clause of €25 million. At this point, Arsenal F.C. was reportedly in negotiations to sign the player.[7] Within days, however, Melo was the subject of a bid from Juventus.[8] The two clubs eventually agreed a fee of €25 million in total and Juve's Marco Marchionni joined Fiorentina on July 15, 2009, for a tagged price €4.5M.[9][10] Later, Cristiano Zanetti, tagged for €2 million, re-joined Fiorentina.[11] This allowed Juve to pay Fiorentina €18.5M in three installments. The first half of the 2009–2010 season was one to forget despite a bright start to his Juve career. He scored his first Juve goal against top-of-the-table rivals A.S. Roma in a 3–1 win. In the December Derby d'Italia fixture at home, he was controversially sent off for a supposed elbow at Internazionale's teenage striker Mario Balotelli. The incident sparked a fiery argument between his teammate Gianluigi Buffon and Inter midfielder Thiago Motta and both had to be separated by Inter and Juve players. He was instrumental in his sides win over A.C. Milan at the San Siro in 2010–11 Serie A, and was later voted man of the match.
On July 22, 2011, he joined Galatasaray on a one year loan deal for €1.5million with an option to transfer permanently next year for €13 million.[12][13] He would earned a net annual salary of €3.3 million plus appearances basis bonus,[14] replacing departed Lorik Cana as new central midfielder. Melo quickly became a fans favourite after his effective playing and has become one of main men in the team. After the games he played so passionate fan gave him a nickname "Pitbull".
Melo made his debut for Brazil on February 10, 2009 against Italy in a friendly match, which Brazil won 2–0. He scored his first goal in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification over Peru. Brazil won 3–0. At the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, Melo scored the opening goal in a 3–0 victory over United States, in the group stage. Melo started all five games at the competition as Brazil went on to win the trophy.
Melo was named in Brazil's final 23-man squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In Brazil's quarter final against the Netherlands in Port Elizabeth, Felipe Melo provided the assist for Robinho's 10th minute opener, before Melo himself slightly touched a Wesley Sneijder cross, which at first was recorded as an own goal, but later credited to Sneijder. Sneijder then put the Dutch 2–1 ahead, before Melo was then sent off by referee Yuichi Nishimura in the 73rd minute for a violent stamp on Dutch winger Arjen Robben.[15] On Brazil's return home after the World Cup, Melo took the brunt of the criticism of the fans as they threw insults, pushed and shoved towards the players.[16]
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Melo has a son called Lineker, who he named after the English centre forward Gary Lineker.[18]
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