Brazilian footballer
In this
Portuguese name
, the first or maternal
family name
is
Soares
and the second or paternal family name is
da Mota
.
"Neto"
is a
generational suffix
meaning "grandson", which is used for someone whose name is the same as their father and grandfather, like "III" in English.
Joao Soares da Mota Neto
(born 21 November 1980), also known as
Mota
, is a Brazilian
football striker
who last played for
Ferroviario
.
Career
[
edit
]
Mota began his career with
Ceara Sporting Club
in 1998, then went to play for Spanish side
RCD Mallorca B
from 1999 to 2001. He was suspended by the club in April 2001 after a
Royal Spanish Football Federation
investigation into the veracity of his
Portuguese passport
that he was using to work in the
European Union
; he said that he was entitled to it due to having a Portuguese great-grandmother.
[1]
He was banned for a year by Spain's Court of Sport, which found that he obtained the passport illegally in 1998.
[2]
Mota then went back to Brazil and played for
Cruzeiro Esporte Clube
scoring 32 goals in the league. In 2004, he went to the Far East where he played for South Korean professional league,
K-League
side
Chunnam Dragons
, finishing as the league's top scorer with 14 goals.
In early 2005, Mota joined Portuguese giant
Sporting Lisbon
. However, he could not make the same impact, and Mota returned to K-League in July. He now plays for
Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma
. His agent, since his move from Ceara to Cruzeiro in 2003, is Emerson Damasceno, from Brazil.
As soon as he moved on to
Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma
he became the best player for his club, scoring 7 goals in 19 matches. However, he suffered from a broken left ankle in the match against
Gyeongnam FC
in 2006, which forced him to be out of the pitch for several months.
He then came back from injury at the time of Play-off season, and scored the winning goal against
FC Seoul
in semi-final,
and two goals in the final against
Suwon Samsung Bluewings
.
On 26 March 2009, Mota signed with
Ceara
until the end of the season, helping Ceara to be promoted to first division in Brazil.
On 28 December 2009, Mota came back to South Korea and joined
Pohang Steelers
.
[3]
After spending a two-year at Pohang, he returned to Brazil for his family.
In January 2012, Mota signed with Ceara Sporting Club, where he played for the third time in his career.
[4]
Honors
[
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]
Club
[
edit
]
- Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma
Individual
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]