Matheus Santos Carneiro Cunha (born 27 May 1999), commonly known as Matheus Cunha, 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, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

, on loan from

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's ...

club

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

, and the Brazil national team. Cunha played youth football in Brazil for Coritiba. At the age of 18, he moved to Europe to join Swiss club

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

. He then played for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

clubs RB Leipzig and

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charl ...

, before joining Atlético in August 2021. Cunha won a gold medal with the Brazil under-23 team at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

. He made his senior international debut in September 2021.

Early life

Cunha was born in the city of João Pessoa, Brazil. As a child he played

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hardcourt, hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and Indoor soccer, indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players ...

for a club in

Recife That it may shine on all ( Matthew 5:15) , image_map = Brazil Pernambuco Recife location map.svg , mapsize = 250px , map_caption = Location in the state of Pernambuco , pushpin_map = Brazil#South A ...

, before switching to football.

Club career

FC Sion

Cunha played youth football for Coritiba, before joining Swiss club

at the age of 18 in July 2017, after impressing scouts at the

Dallas Cup The ''Dallas Cup'', is an annual international Football (soccer), football tournament for invited youth teams. The tournament was established i1980and is held in Dallas, Dallas, Texas, with FC Dallas serving as its host club. Venues used for the t ...

youth tournament. In May 2018, he scored a hat-trick in a 4–1 victory over

FC Thun Fussballclub Thun 1898 is a Swiss football team from the Bernese Oberland town of Thun. The club plays in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of the Swiss football league system, following relegation from the Swiss Super League in the ...

RB Leipzig

On 24 June 2018, Cunha joined

club RB Leipzig on a five-year-deal. He scored his maiden Bundesliga goal against his future club

, to mark a 3–0 win in November 2018. He scored a goal against Bayer Leverkusen in April 2019 that won the Bundesliga Goal of the Month award, and was nominated for the

FIFA Puskás Award The FIFA Puskás Award is an award established on 20 October 2009 by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), at the behest of then-president Sepp Blatter, to be awarded to the male or female judged to have scored the most ...

. He finished the

2018–19 UEFA Europa League The 2018–19 UEFA Europa League was the 48th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 10th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played at the Olympic St ...

season with 6 goals.

Hertha BSC

On 31 January 2020,

announced the signing of Cunha, the Brazilian arriving for a fee of €18 Million.

Atlético Madrid

On 25 August 2021, he joined Atlético Madrid on a five-year contract for a fee of €30 Million. He scored his first goal against

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. (, ca-valencia, Llevant Unió Esportiva ) is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 9 September 1909, Levante ...

to seal a 2–2 draw.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

On 1 January 2023, he joined

on loan for the remainder of the 2022–23 season, with the move becoming permanent in the summer of 2023 should certain stipulations in the loan agreement be met.

International career

Under-23 team

With Brazil's under-23 team, Cunha was the top scorer of the

2019 Toulon Tournament The 2019 Toulon Tournament (officially french: 47ème Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) was the 47th edition of the Toulon Tournament. It was held in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône from 1 to 15 June 2019. England w ...

and the

2020 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament The 2020 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament was the 13th edition of the CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament, the quadrennial, international, age-restricted football tournament organised by the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL) to deter ...

, winning the former and finishing as runner-up in the latter, thus securing qualification to the Olympics for the Brazil team with the latter performance. On 17 June 2021, he was named in Brazil's squad for the

in Tokyo. In August 2021, he won a gold medal with Brazil at the Olympics, having scored 3 goals in 5 appearances at the tournament. Overall, Cunha has scored 21 goals in 24 games for the under-23 team.

Senior team

In September 2020, Cunha was called up to the senior

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 ...

squad for

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualificationAlso the "FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers". was the qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Parallel tour ...

matches against

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and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

on 9 and 13 October 2020, respectively. He made his debut for the senior national team on 2 September 2021, in a

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, a 1–0 away victory. He substituted Gabriel Barbosa in the 78th minute.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Brazil U23 *

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

* Toulon Tournament:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Individual *Toulon Tournament Top Scorer:

* Toulon Tournament Best XI:

* CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament Top scorer:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cunha, Matheus 1999 births Living people Association football wingers Brazilian footballers People from João Pessoa, Paraíba FC Sion players RB Leipzig players Hertha BSC players Atlético Madrid footballers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Swiss Super League players Bundesliga players La Liga players Premier League players Brazilian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in England Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in England Brazil youth international footballers Brazil international footballers Olympic footballers of Brazil Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in football Olympic gold medalists for Brazil Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Paraíba