Walter Soares Belitardo Júnior (; born 11 December 1990), commonly known as Juninho, is a 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, rugby lea ...

who currently plays as a striker for

Hong Kong Premier League The Hong Kong Premier League () is a Hong Kong professional football league organised by the Football Association of Hong Kong, China. It is currently sponsored by BOC Life and officially known as BOC Life Hong Kong Premier League (). The inau ...

club

Kitchee Kitchee Sports Club (; ; ) is a Hong Kong professional Association football, football club based in Kowloon. It was founded in 1931 and currently competes in the Hong Kong Premier League. The club has won 12 List of Hong Kong football champion ...

. Born in Brazil, he plays for the Hong Kong national team.

Club career

Sporting de Macau

After terminating his contract with

Barretos Barretos is a municipality in the northern part of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The city has approximately 122,833 inhabitants (IBGE/2020) and an area of 1566.1 km2. Barretos belongs to the Mesoregion of Ribeirão Preto. History The c ...

in 2015 due to low pay and delays in payment, Juninho decided to move to Macau in search of a higher salary. He moved to Macau with the intention of signing a professional contract but due to a misunderstanding as to the professional opportunities in Macau, he was ultimately forced to play as an amateur for Sporting de Macau in order to continue his career.

Tung Sing

Juninho signed with

club

Dreams A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5–20 minutes, althou ...

, then known as Biu Chun Glory Sky, in the summer of 2016. However, as the club later signed additional foreign players, BCGS did not have room on their squad to register him. Juninho then moved to Tung Sing in September 2016. In his only season with the club, he scored 31 goals in 22 appearances, finishing third in the Golden Boot race.

Yuen Long

Following the 2016–17 season, Juninho went on trial with HKPL club

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

but was not signed. A week before the 2017–18 season started, Juninho was signed to

Yuen Long Yuen Long is a town in the western New Territories, Hong Kong. To its west lie Hung Shui Kiu (), Tin Shui Wai, Lau Fau Shan and Ha Tsuen, to the south Shap Pat Heung and Tai Tong, to the east Au Tau and Kam Tin (), and to the north Nam Sang Wa ...

Pegasus

On 23 July 2018, it was announced at

Pegasus Pegasus (; ) is a winged horse in Greek mythology, usually depicted as a white stallion. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus was the brother of Chrysaor, both born from Medusa's blood w ...

' season opening event that the club had signed Juninho for the 2018–19 campaign.

Yuen Long

On 8 August 2019, Juninho was loaned to

after

had signed a new foreign player. He rejoined the club after one year.

Rangers

On 17 October 2020, it was announced that Juninho was signed for

Kitchee

On 12 July 2023, Juninho joined

International career

On 8 December 2023, it was announced that Juninho had received his HKSAR passport after giving up his Brazilian passport, making him eligible to represent

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

internationally. He was then subsequently called up for the local training camp in preparation of the

2023 AFC Asian Cup The 2023 AFC Asian Cup was the 18th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It involved 24 national teams after its expansion in 20 ...

. On 26 December 2023, he was named in Hong Kong's final squad for the Asian Cup. On 1 January 2024, Juninho made his international debut for

in a friendly match against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Career statistics

International

International goals

Honours

Yuen Long *

Hong Kong Senior Shield The Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield (), known commonly as the Senior Shield, is the football knockout inter-club competition held in Hong Kong and the fourth oldest football tournament in Asia. Traditionally, only teams that play in the Hong K ...

: 2017–18 Kitchee *

: 2023–24

References

External links

Walter Soares Belitardo Júnior
at HKFA * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Juninho 1990 births Living people People from Caieiras Footballers from São Paulo (state) Hong Kong men's footballers Hong Kong men's international footballers Brazilian men's footballers Brazilian emigrants to Hong Kong Clube Atlético Votuporanguense players Hong Kong First Division League players Hong Kong Premier League players Yuen Long FC players Hong Kong Pegasus FC players 21st-century Hong Kong sportsmen Hong Kong Rangers FC players Kitchee SC players Expatriate men's footballers in Hong Kong Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Naturalised footballers of Hong Kong Men's association football midfielders Hong Kong League XI representative players 2023 AFC Asian Cup players 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen