Clubs: União Bandeirante FC, Ituiutaba EC (loan), Luverdense EC (loan), GE Jaciara (loan), A. Académica de Coimbra, Hertha BSC Berlin, AC Omonia (loan), SC Braga (loan)

UEFA honours
UEFA Europa League: runner-up 2011

• A Brazilian central defender, Kaká made a discreet start to his career, most of it on loan from his first club União Bandeirante.

• Moved to Europe in 2006, joining Académica Coimbra and starting 22 Portuguese Liga matches in his debut season.

• A league ever-present for Académica in 2007/08, the majority of it under coach Domingos Paciência, he also scored his first goal in the competition, in a 1-1 draw with Boavista FC on 25 February 2008.

• Joined Hertha in summer 2008, making his Bundesliga debut in August against Eintracht Frankfurt; not a regular in Lucien Favre's team but made seven appearances in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup (qualifying and group stage).

• Relegated from the Bundesliga with Hertha in 2010 but spent the second half of the campaign on loan at Omonia, with whom he won the Cypriot title, making seven league starts; farmed out again in January 2011 to Braga, whom he helped to the UEFA Europa League final.