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, rugb ...

who plays as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Red Bull Bragantino, on loan from

Palmeiras Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with around ...

Club career

Botafogo

Born in

Itaboraí Itaboraí (, ) is a city in the state of 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. Location Culturally, its closest municipalities are Sã ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, 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 ...

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 Jair Zaksauskas Ribeiro Ventura (born 19 March 1979), known as Jair Ventura, is a Brazilian professional football coach and former player who played as a forward. Besides Brazil, he has played in France, Greece, and Gabon. Playing career Bo ...

; 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 home draw against Nova Iguaçu. Four days later he made his Copa Libertadores debut, replacing Camilo in a 2–1 home win against

Colo-Colo Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo () is a Chilean professional football club based in Macul, Santiago. Founded in 1925 by David Arellano they play in the Chilean Primera División, from which they have never been relegated. The team has pla ...

. Fernandes was a regular starter for ''Bota'' during the 2018 campaign, appearing in 32 league matches (40 overall) and winning the year's Campeonato Carioca. He scored his first professional goal on 10 May of that year, netting the opener in a 1–1 Copa Sudamericana home draw against Audax Italiano (3–2 aggregate win).

Palmeiras

On 19 December 2018, Fernandes signed a five-year contract with

, 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 professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Fluminense. He began his career with Campeonato Brasileiro Série A teams Flamengo, Cruzeiro a ...

and Bruno Henrique, he was not registered for the year's Campeonato Paulista, and only made his debut for the club on 1 May, replacing Moisés in a 1–1 away draw against

CSA CSA may refer to: Arts and media * Canadian Screen Awards, annual awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television * Commission on Superhuman Activities, a fictional American government agency in Marvel Comics * Crime Syndicate of Amer ...

. Fernandes started to feature more regularly after Moisés' departure to

Shandong Luneng Shandong Taishan Football Club () is a professional football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Jinan, Shandong and their home stadium is th ...

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

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football ...

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 simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

side

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid () or Valladolid, is a professional football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish league system. The club c ...

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

Barcelona

On 31 January 2020,

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern 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 ci ...

announced that they had reached agreement with Palmeiras for the transfer of Fernandes, who would join the

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

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 and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

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 (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

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

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) 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, the club as a separate business entity was officia ...

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 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,

signed Matheus for four and half seasons, till 31 December 2025, after his contract with Barcelona was terminated.

International career

Fernandes represented

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

at under-17 and under-20 levels.

Career statistics

Honours

Club

Botafogo * Campeonato Carioca:

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Barcelona *

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

: 2020–21 Palmeiras * Copa Libertadores:

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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandes, Matheus 1998 births Living people Sportspeople from Rio de Janeiro (state) Brazilian footballers Association football midfielders Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas players Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras players Club Athletico Paranaense players Red Bull Bragantino players La Liga players Real Valladolid players FC Barcelona players Brazil youth international footballers Brazil under-20 international footballers