Ronaldo Pompeu da Silva (born 8 April 1990), sometimes known as just Ronaldo, is a Brazilian

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 plays as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for Spanish club

CD Castellón Club Deportivo Castellón, S.A.D. is a professional List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Castellón de la Plana, in the Valencian Community. Founded on 20 July 1922, it currently plays in , holding home games at ''Nou E ...

. He also holds Italian passport.

Career

Born in Caxambu do Sul, Santa Catarina, Ronaldo moved to Italy at early age, and came through the youth ranks of

Mantova Mantua ( ; ; Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the eponymous province. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2017, it was named as the "European C ...

. He made his first team debut on 27 March 2010, coming on as a second-half substitute for Stefano Mondini in a 1–0

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

home win over

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

. Ronaldo left Mantova after ten appearances as the club went bankrupt, and signed a one-year deal with

Padova Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of ...

on 28 July 2010. Roughly one year later, he agreed to a three-year contract with

Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and a ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the province of Grosseto and the main city of the Maremma region. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the ...

. On 10 January 2013, Ronaldo joined

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno River, Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Ancient Ro ...

, but was immediately loaned out to

Catanzaro Catanzaro (; or ; ), also known as the "City of the two Seas" (), is an Italian city of 86,183 inhabitants (2020), the capital of the Calabria region and of its province and the second most populated comune of the region, behind Reggio Calabr ...

. Back to Empoli in July, he signed a new contract until 2016 on 9 January 2014. On 16 July 2014, Ronaldo was loaned to

Pro Vercelli Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly referred to as Pro Vercelli, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Vercelli, Piedmont. The club is mostly renowned as one of the most successful teams in the early football era of Ital ...

for one season, but had limited playing time due to suffering a

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

injury in November. He returned to Empoli in July 2015, and made his

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

debut on 23 August, in a 3–1 home loss to

Chievo Chievo (4,500 inhabitants) is a frazione of Verona located to the west of the city, around from the historic city centre, on the shores of the river Adige. It is best known for its football team, A.C. ChievoVerona. History The name came from t ...

. In January 2016 Ronaldo was signed by

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

. However, he was immediately left for sister club

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919 is an Italian professional football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recently in 2011. The current ...

. The loan was renewed on 31 August. On 17 July 2019, after two years at

Novara Novara (; Novarese Lombard, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous ...

, Ronaldo returned to Padova. On 22 July 2022, he signed a two-year contract with Vicenza. On 16 July 2025, Ronaldo left Italy for the first time in his career, joining Spanish

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

side

on a one-year deal.

References

External links

* * 1990 births Living people Footballers from Santa Catarina (state) Naturalised citizens of Italy Brazilian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Mantova 1911 players Calcio Padova players US Grosseto 1912 players Empoli FC players US Catanzaro 1929 players FC Pro Vercelli 1892 players SS Lazio players US Salernitana 1919 players Novara FC players LR Vicenza players CD Castellón footballers Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen {{Brazil-footy-midfielder-1990s-stub