Paulo Assunção da Silva (born 25 January 1980), known as Paulo Assunção, is a Brazilian retired 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 ...

who played as a

defensive 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 ...

. He was best known for his positioning and tackling, and also held a Portuguese passport due to the many years in spent in the country, mainly at the service of

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...

. He also played four years in

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' ...

with

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, 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 professional football club based in ...

, winning two

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

trophies.

Club career

Early years and Porto

Assunção was born in

Várzea Grande, Mato Grosso Várzea Grande is a municipality in the state of Mato Grosso in the Central-West Region of Brazil. History The "City of the Great Lowlands" arose from a donation of land grants given to the Guaná people in 1832, considered civilized by the Po ...

. After first appearing professionally for

Palmeiras Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional association football, football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes (district of São Paulo), Perdizes. Palmeiras is one ...

he emigrated to Portugal, having a short stint with

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Por ...

's reserves and returning shortly to Palmeiras. In the 2002–03 season he joined

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

's C.D. Nacional, and made his

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal ...

debut on 26 January 2003 in a 0–0 home draw against

Vitória de Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...

. After two highly successful individual campaigns, Assunção was purchased again by Porto, but would be loaned for 2004–05 to

AEK Athens FC AEK FC ( el, ΠΑΕ A.E.K. ; Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; ''Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos'', meaning ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a Greek professional football club based in Nea Filad ...

, managed by former Porto coach Fernando Santos. In July 2005 he returned, going on to be an instrumental element in the team's midfield (alongside

Raul Meireles Raul José Trindade Meireles (; born 17 March 1983) is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a midfielder. After starting out at Boavista, he signed with Porto in 2004, going on to appear in 198 official games and win ten major trophies ...

and Lucho González) as they eventually won three consecutive league championships. Assunção left Porto after being threatened with a shot to the knee by FC Porto supporters who wanted him to renew his contract.

Atlético Madrid

In early July 2008, after buying out the remainder of his contract, Assunção joined

. He adjusted quickly with the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

side, playing all

matches safe four and helping them repeat the fourth-place finish, with a subsequent

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

to 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 ...

. Defensive-minded Assunção scored his first goal for the ''Colchoneros'' on 17 January 2010, during the team's 3–2 home win against

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting (although in an international context this can lead to confusion with Sporting Clube de Portugal) is a Spanish football club from Gijón, P ...

. whilst continuing as the undisputed starter at holding midfielder. He lost that position midway through the 2010–11 season, to newly signed Mario Suárez. In the 2011–12 campaign, Assunção was only fourth choice in his position after Suárez, Gabi and Tiago. He did contribute six appearances – four starts – as Atlético

reached ''Reached'' is a 2012 young adult dystopian novel by Ally Condie, Allyson Braithwaite Condie and is the final novel in the ''Matched Trilogy,'' preceded by ''Matched (book), Matched'' and ''Crossed (novel), Crossed''. The novel was published on N ...

and won the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

São Paulo and Deportivo

After more than one decade in European football, Assunção returned to his country to play for

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

. The deal was confirmed on 21 July 2012 but, on 28 December, it was terminated by mutual consent, with the player returning to Spain and joining

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. They currently play in the Primera División RFEF – ...

. In January 2014, 34-year-old Assunção signed for Levadiakos F.C. in the

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

, leaving in June after failing to appear in any competitive matches.

Personal life

Assunção's son,

Gustavo Gustavo is the Latinate form of a Germanic male given name with respective prevalence in Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian. It has been a common name for Swedish monarchs since the reign of Gustav Vasa. It is derived from Gustav /ˈɡʊstɑːv/, ...

, is also a footballer and a midfielder.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Porto *

: 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seas ...

: 2005–06 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese football match played since 1979 between the winners of the Portuguese League (Primeira Liga) and Portuguese ...

: 2006 Atlético Madrid *

: 2009–10, 2011–12 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was original ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

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 ...

runner-up: 2009–10 São Paulo *

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American fo ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Assuncao, Paulo 1980 births Living people People from Várzea Grande, Mato Grosso Brazilian footballers Association football midfielders Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras players São Paulo FC players Primeira Liga players Segunda Divisão players FC Porto B players C.D. Nacional players FC Porto players Super League Greece players AEK Athens F.C. players Levadiakos F.C. players La Liga players Atlético Madrid footballers Deportivo de La Coruña players UEFA Europa League winning players Brazilian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in Spain Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Sportspeople from Mato Grosso