Bruna Santos Nhaia (born 16 June 2002), known as Bruninha or just Bruna, is a Brazilian professional

soccer player 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

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. She plays for

Gotham FC Gotham Football Club is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in the New York metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sk ...

in the

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional Association football, soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system#Women's leagues, United States soccer league system (alongside the USL Supe ...

(NWSL) as well as the Brazil national team. She previously played for Brazilian sides Chapecoense,

Internacional Sport Club Internacional (), commonly known as Internacional, Inter de Porto Alegre, a cidade do Grêmio or simply Inter, is a Brazilian professional football club based in Porto Alegre. They play in the Série A, the first division of the ...

, and

Santos FC Santos Futebol Clube () is a Brazilian sports club based in Vila Belmiro, a ''bairro'' in the city of Santos, São Paulo, Santos. It plays in the Campeonato Paulista, the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo's premier State football lea ...

. She captained the Brazilian team at the 2022 U-20 World Cup and participated in the 2023 World Cup. Known for her strong play on both sides of the ball, she won the

NWSL Championship The NWSL Championship is the annual championship game of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top-flight women's soccer league in the United States. It is the culmination of the NWSL playoffs, which is contested by the teams with the ...

with Gotham FC in 2023 and is the youngest goal scorer in the history of the club.

Club career

Youth career and Beginnings in Brazil

Born in

Castro, Paraná Castro is a municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil. In 2020 it had a population of 71,809 people. The main road running through the town is the PR-151 road. History The first inhabitants were the indigenous people ...

, Bruninha joined Chapecoense's youth setup after a trial period in 2016. She made her first team debut for the club in 2018, but went back to playing at the under-18 level following a 2019 move to

. Bruninha began featuring in Internacional's first team during the 2020 campaign, scoring a goal on her debut in a 3–0 away win against Vitória on 5 September. In February 2021, she moved to

. She appeared in 24 matches for the club and won the 2021 Bola de Prata (Silver Ball) for her play.

Gotham FC, 2022–present

On 23 August 2022, Santos transferred Bruninha to

NJ/NY Gotham FC Gotham Football Club is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in the New York metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sk ...

of the

for an undisclosed fee. She made one appearance in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

and 17 league appearances during the 2023 season, in which Gotham placed sixth. She scored her first NWSL goal on 21 May 2023, becoming the youngest goal scorer in club history at 20 years of age. During the month of May she was named Player of the Week for Week 9 and appeared on the Team of the Month for her strong defensive and attacking play. She played in every minute of Gotham's postseason run, scoring a crucial assist in the quarter final match against the

North Carolina Courage The North Carolina Courage are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Cary, North Carolina, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It was founded on January 9, 2017, after Stephen Malik acqui ...

and playing in a defense that allowed one goal in three games. Gotham FC lifted the

trophy on 11 November 2023. She is currently under contract through the 2025 season.

International career

Bruninha has made appearances for Brazil at the under-17, under-20, and

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

levels. In 2022 she won the

South American U-20 Championship The South American Youth Football Championship, also known as South American U-20 Championship (; ), branded as CONMEBOL Sub 20, is a South American football tournament organized by the CONMEBOL for South American national teams of men under age o ...

and captained her team at the

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup is an international association football tournament, organized by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), for national teams of women under the age of 20. The tournament is held biennially. ...

, in which Brazil finished in third, playing in every match. She made her first appearance for the full women's national team on 17 September 2021, in a 3–1 win against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, notching one assist. In 2023 she appeared in the

SheBelieves Cup The SheBelieves Cup is an invitational women's association football, women's soccer tournament held in different cities in the United States in late February or early March. In its first three years (2016, 2017, and 2018), it was contested by t ...

and made her first

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

appearance in a 4–0 group stage win over

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

Style of play

Bruninha is a right-footed defender who typically plays on the right side of a back four as a right back, though she occasionally plays on the opposite side of the field. Upon re-signing Bruninha in 2023, NJ/NY Gotham FC head coach

Juan Carlos Amorós Juan Carlos Amorós López (born 3 June 1984) is a Spanish Manager (association football), football manager who is currently the head coach of Gotham FC of the American National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). He previously managed NWSL club Houst ...

described her as having "great skill on the ball, and she is strong in 1v1 defending. She can read the game well, and has the ability to be a dangerous part of our attack."

Career statistics

International

Club

;

Honours

Gotham FC *

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

CONCACAF W Champions Cup The CONCACAF W Champions Cup is an annual continental women's football club competition organized by CONCACAF that determines the club champion for the region encompassing North America, Central America and the Caribbean. It is comparable to ...

: 2024–25 Brazil U20 *

South American Under-20 Women's Football Championship The South American Under-20 Women's Football Championship (Spanish: Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-20 Femenino), officially the CONMEBOL Sub20 Femenina, is an international association football competition for women's national teams. It is held every ...

Individual *ESPN Bola de Prata: 2021 *

NWSL Player of the Week The National Women's Soccer League Player of the Week was a weekly soccer award given to individual players in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) from 2013 to 2023. The honor was awarded by popular social media vote to the player deemed to ...

: Week 9, 2023 *

NWSL Team of the Month The National Women's Soccer League Team of the Month, also called the Best XI of the Month since 2022, is a monthly women's soccer award given to individual players in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Selection This award began in 20 ...

: May 2023

References

External links

*
Bruninha #3
at

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bruna Santos Nhaia 2002 births Living people Footballers from Paraná (state) Brazilian women's footballers Women's association football defenders Campeonato Brasileiro de Futebol Feminino Série A1 players Santos FC (women) players Brazil women's international footballers National Women's Soccer League players Gotham FC players Brazilian expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Sport Club Internacional (women) players 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players Brazilian sportspeople of Japanese descent 21st-century Brazilian sportswomen