Felipe Melo

Felipe Melo

Melo in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Felipe Melo de Carvalho
Date of birth	(1983-06-26) 26 June 1983
Place of birth	Volta Redonda, Brazil
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Galatasaray
Number	3
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)
2009–2013	Juventus	58	(4)
2011–2013	→ Galatasaray (loan)	79	(14)
2013–	Galatasaray	17	(1)
National team‡
2009–2010	Brazil	22	(2)
Honours Competitor for  Brazil Football FIFA Confederations Cup Gold 2009 Confederations Cup
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 2 February 2014. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 28 April 2013

Felipe Melo de Carvalho (born 26 June 1983) is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Turkish Süper Lig club Galatasaray.

Melo is a Brazilian international and played in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He arrived in Europe in 2005 and had played for top division clubs likes Fiorentina, UD Almería, Racing de Santander, and RCD Mallorca. He also holds Spanish nationality^[1][2] since the 2007–08 season, thus not consumed by the non-EU registration quota for new signing from abroad of Serie A.

Club career

Flamengo

Felipe Melo began his career for Flamengo, where he made 69 appearances and scored no goals in his two-season spell with the club. Following impressive performances with Flamengo, Melo transferred to Cruzeiro in the summer of 2003.

Cruzeiro

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 two goals. Following yet another impressive season in Brazil, he was sold to Grêmio.

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. Melo was considered by many fans,one of the players responsible for the relegation, due to his poor performances.

Mallorca

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.

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.

Almería

In July 2007, Melo transferred to fellow La Liga club UD Almería. He was a regular in the clubs' starting XI and would make 34 league appearances with an impressive seven goals. An outstanding season led to the attraction of several European clubs, scouting the defensive midfielder, and in the summer of 2008, Melo transferred to the Serie A to play for Fiorentina.

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 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 Juventus in Turin.

Juventus

On 30 June 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 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 15 July 2009 for a tagged price of €4.5 million.^[9][10] Later, Cristiano Zanetti, tagged for €2 million, re-joined Fiorentina.^[11] This allowed Juve to pay Fiorentina €18.5 million in three instalments.

The first half of the 2009–10 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 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 Milan at the San Siro in 2010–11 season, and was later voted man of the match.

Galatasaray

2011–12 season

On 22 July 2011, Melo joined Galatasaray in Turkey on a season-long loan deal for €1.5 million with an option to transfer permanently at the end of the season for €13 million.^[12][13] He agreed on a contract with a net annual salary of €3.3 million plus a per-appearance bonus of €30,000,^[14] replacing departed Lorik Cana as the new central midfielder. He was attributed to the nickname "Pitbull" by the team supporters because of his passionate playing style, which also helped him become a fans favourite quickly; it is said that he displayed the mutual respect back with his tattoo of the club's mascot, a lion, on his arm.^[15] But this is not true, because in his own statement, he states that this is a coincidence, and that he got the tattoo due to the fact that in Brazil, a lion stands for Jesus Christ.^[16]

He scored his first goal on 18 September 2011 from a 35 meter long shot against Samsunspor. He scored 12 goals in 36 league matches, and at the end of the season, he was among the champion squad.

2012–13 season

Melo had been expected to make a permanent move to Galatasaray, however on 24 July transfer fee negotiations between the club and Juventus broke down due to the Turkish club requesting a lower fee for the player.^[17] On 14 August, the two clubs were able to agree another loan deal sending Melo to Turkey for the 2012–13 season, for €1.75 million, with the agreement including "the option, to be exercised by Galatasaray by 30 April 2013, for the permanent acquisition of the player for a price of 6.5 million euros."^[18] Melo also had a wage cut to €2.9 million with an appearances-based bonus of €25,000.^[19]

On 24 November, in a game between Galatasaray and Elazığspor in the Turkish Süper Lig, Melo saved a penalty after regular goalkeeper Fernando Muslera had committed a foul and been sent off and Galatasaray had already used all their substitutions.^[20]

2013-14 season

On 20 July, Melo made a permanent move to Galatasaray signing a 3 year deal and the fee was €3.5 million.^[21] Melo will wear the number 3 shirt for the 2013–14 Süper Lig season, vacating the number 10 shirt for Wesley Sneijder. On 2 February 2014, Melo earned his 100 cap in official games at his Galatasaray career, in Süper Lig encounter against Bursaspor which ended 6–0 in favour of Galatasaray.^[22][23]

International career

Melo made his international debut for Brazil on 10 February 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 the 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.^[24] 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.^[25]

Controversies

On June 18, 2013, through Twitter and Facebook, Melo offended Renato Maurício Prado, a pundit of Fox Sports channel. Among another names callings, Melo called Prado "coward", "arsehole" and "the cuckold most famous of sporting journalism".^[26][27]

On August 2013, after two months of incident, Prado went to court against Melo, asking reparation for offenses.^[28]

Career statistics

As of 2 February 2014^{[29][30][31][32]}

Club

Club	Season	League		Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Flamengo	2001	3	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	1
	2002	21	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	21	2
	2003	2	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	0
	Total	26	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	26	3
Cruzeiro	2003	31	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	31	2
	Total	31	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	31	2
Grêmio	2004	19	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	19	3
	Total	19	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	19	3
Mallorca	2004–05	7	0	-	-	-	-	–		7	0
	Total	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	0
Racing de Santander	2005–06	33	3	-	-	-	-	–		33	3
	2006–07	16	3	-	-	-	-	–		16	3
	Total	49	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	49	6
Almería	2007–08	34	7	-	-	-	-	–		34	7
	Total	34	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	34	7
Fiorentina	2008–09	29	2	1	0	–		10	0	40	2
	Total	29	2	1	0	0	0	10	0	40	2
Juventus	2009–10	29	3	2	0	–		9	0	40	3
	2010–11	29	1	2	0	–		7	0	38	1
	Total	58	4	4	0	0	0	16	0	78	4
Galatasaray	2011–12	36	12	0	0	–		–		36	12
	2012–13	26	1	0	0	0	0	9	0	35	1
	2013–14	17	1	5	0	1	0	6	1	29	2
	Total	79	14	5	0	1	0	15	1	100	15
Career total		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	384	42

International

As of 8 April 2012 ^[33]

National team	Club	Season	Apps	Goals
Brazil	Fiorentina	2008–09	10	2
	Juventus	2009–10	12	0
Total			22	2

Honours

Club

Flamengo

• Campeonato Carioca (Rio de Janeiro State League): 2001
• Copa dos Campeões (Brazilian Champions Cup): 2001

Cruzeiro

• Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (Brazilian League): 2003

Galatasaray

• Süper Lig (2): 2011–12, 2012–13
• Süper Kupa (2): 2012, 2013
• Emirates Cup: 2013

Brazil

• FIFA Confederations Cup (1): 2009

Individual

• Sambafoot Brazilian Player of the Year (2012, 2013): fourth place^[34]

Personal life

Melo is married to Roberta^[35] and they have one daughter (Pietra) and three sons, David, Lineker (who he named after the English centre forward Gary Lineker),^[36] and Luke.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Felipe Melo.

• Felipe Melo on Twitter
• Felipe Melo at National-Football-Teams.com
• Felipe Melo – FIFA competition record
• News about the Felipe Melo (Turkish Version)
• Statistics at TFF.org (Turkish)
• Profile at Transfermarkt
• Profile at Galatasaray.org
• ESPN Soccernet stats page
• Sambafoot.com profile

Brazil squad v t e Brazil squad – 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup Winners (3rd Title) 1 Júlio César 2 Maicon 3 Lúcio (c) 4 Juan 5 Felipe Melo 6 Kléber 7 Elano 8 Gilberto Silva 9 Luís Fabiano 10 Kaká 11 Robinho 12 Victor 13 Daniel Alves 14 Luisão 15 Miranda 16 André Santos 17 Josué 18 Ramires 19 Júlio Baptista 20 Kléberson 21 Pato 22 Nilmar 23 Gomes Coach: Dunga v t e Brazil squad – 2010 FIFA World Cup 1 Júlio César 2 Maicon 3 Lúcio (c) 4 Juan 5 Felipe Melo 6 Michel Bastos 7 Elano 8 Gilberto Silva 9 Luís Fabiano 10 Kaká 11 Robinho 12 Gomes 13 Daniel Alves 14 Luisão 15 Thiago Silva 16 Gilberto 17 Josué 18 Ramires 19 Júlio Baptista 20 Kléberson 21 Nilmar 22 Doni 23 Grafite Coach: Dunga

v t e Galatasaray S.K. – current squad 2 Burdisso 3 Melo 4 Hamit 5 Gökhan 6 Ceyhun 7 Aydın 8 Selçuk 10 Sneijder 11 Drogba 14 Hajrović 15 Telles 17 Burak 19 Umut 21 Chedjou 22 Hakan 25 Muslera 26 Semih 27 Eboué 28 Koray 32 İbrahim 35 Yekta 40 Emre Can 41 Berk İsmail 45 Oğuzhan 52 Çolak 55 Sabri 66 Salih 67 Eray 82 Aykut 86 Ufuk 88 Veysel 90 Gündoğan 94 Ontivero Manager: Mancini

Persondata
Name	Melo , Felipe
Alternative names
Short description	Brazilian footballer and manager
Date of birth	26 June 1983
Place of birth	Volta Redonda, Brazil
Date of death
Place of death