Football Player's Biography 7: Juninho Pernambucano

Full name	Antônio Augusto Ribeiro Reis Jr.
Date of birth	30 January 1975 (1975-01-30) (age 36)
Place of birth	Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Attacking midfielder

Antônio Augusto Ribeiro Reis Jr. (born 30 January 1975 in Recife), commonly known as Juninho or Juninho Pernambucano,^[2] is a Brazilian footballer and dead-ball specialist, currently playing as a midfielder for Qatar club Al-Gharafa. He is considered to be one of the greatest free kick takers of all time.^{[citation needed]} Juninho led Olympique Lyonnais to 7 consecutive Ligue 1 titles before leaving the club in 2009 while scoring 100 goals in 344 games for Lyon,^[3] and six goals in 40 games for the Brazilian national team. He retired from international football after the 2006 World Cup.

Club career

Early career

He moved to Vasco da Gama in 1995, and won several trophies with the club, including the Brazilian Championship in 1997 and 2000, the Copa Libertadores in 1998, the Copa Mercosur in 2000, as well as the 2000 Brazilian Silver Ball award as one of the best Brazilian midfielders of the season. In that time, he was part of an incredisquad, playing with Romário, Edmundo, and Juninho Paulista.

King of São Januário

Before joining Lyon, Juninho played for Vasco da Gama in Brazil. While there, he won the Brazilian Championship twice (1997–2000) and two continental cups (the Copa Libertadores in 1998 and the Copa Mercosul in 2000), becoming a favourite of the Vasco fans.^{[citation needed]}
Since that time he has been known as Reizinho de São Januário (The Little King of São Januário)^[4] or Reizinho da Colina (The Little King of the Hill),^[5] a reference to Vasco da Gama Stadium's name (São Januário) or nickname (Stadium of the Hill). Although he left Vasco for Lyon after a judicial fight, he is still considered a favourite of Vasco fans.^[6] Juninho has been citated in a classic chorus sang by the fans^[7] remembering his free-kick goal against River Plate, at Monumental de Núñez, during the 1998 Libertadores^[8]^[9] which helped the club reach the finals against Barcelona de Guayaquil.

Lyon

In 2001, Juninho moved abroad to play for French club Olympique Lyonnais. Before his arrival at Lyon, the club had never won the French Ligue 1 championship. In his first year at the club, the championship was secured, and it was subsequently won seven seasons in a row. At Lyon, Juninho made himself especially noted for his accurate, powerful and varied set pieces.
Having been regarded as one of the world's greatest free kick takers of the present day and possibly one of the greatest of all time, in addition, he is an effective passer, having provided many assists, and his leadership abilities prompted Lyon manager Gérard Houllier to name him team captain.
On 26 May 2009, Juninho announced that he would leave Lyon at the end of the season as a free agent. Lyon chairman Jean-Michel Aulas explained to the media that the club and Juninho agreed to cancel the last year of his contract. During the press conference, Juninho was sitting next to Aulas and left the press conference without saying a word.^[10]^[11]

Al-Gharafa

On 17 June 2009, Juninho signed a two-year contract with Qatari club Al-Gharafa for a fee of €2.5 million.^[12] In his first season with Al-Gharafa, Juninho captained the team to their seventh league title and wins in the Qatari Stars Cup and Qatar Crown Prince Cup, completing the treble. He finished the season with Player of the Year honours from the Qatar Football Association.

International career

Juninho made his debut for the Brazilian national team in 1999.
On 7 September 1999, he became the first footballer to play two top-level matches in two different countries in the same day.^{[citation needed]} He represented his country in the second half of the friendly match between Brazil and Argentina in Porto Alegre, which Brazil won 4–2, playing about fifteen minutes. In spite of a delayed flight to Montevideo, he still arrived in Uruguay in time to feature in the second half of the Copa Mercosur match between Vasco and Nacional.
Juninho represented Brazil at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Juninho scored against Japan in a group stage match.Following Brazil's defeat in the quarter-finals of the tournament, he announced his international retirement, as to make way for younger talents coming through the ranks in Brazil to build for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Juninho has been nominated many times for FIFA World Player of the Year award and France Football Ballon d'Or but has still not won it.

Playing style

Juninho has been described as "One of the world's most feared strikers of a static ball".^[13] As of 17 May 2009, Juninho has scored 44 goals from direct free kicks for Olympique Lyonnais,^[14] his last for the club being a strike from long distance against Olympique de Marseille. With his free kick in Champions League against FC Barcelona he rewrote Olympique Lyonnais' record books as their highest ever European goal scorer with 17 goals.^[15] The method he uses for long-range free kicks is frequently "knuckle balling," where the ball has almost no spinning motion during flight. A successful knuckle ball will "move" or "wobble" in the air unpredictably, making it difficult for the goal keeper to save.^[16] He first made his name as a free kick taker in Europe with a long range free kick against Bayern Munich in the 2003–04 champions league group stage in which the ball dipped viciously at the end of travel that deceived Bayern keeper Oliver Kahn who was considered the best keeper in the world at the time. He was also the creator of the famous "shoot of the snake".
In matches against another German side Werder Bremen and Spanish side Real Madrid, he scored from free kicks ranged at around 35 yards from goal. On 23 May, the day of his very last game for Lyon, Juninho reached the 100 goal landmark total overall goal tally for Lyon through a penalty kick against Caen. He has scored from free-kicks beyond 40 metres on four occasions: a 41 metre screamer against AC Ajaccio in 2006,^[17] a 45 metre goal against Barcelona in 2007,^[18] a 48 metre goal against OGC Nice in 2008, and a 40 metre strike against Marseille in 2009.^[19] Even before Lyon, he displayed his talent at Vasco da Gama, scoring several free kick goals for the club. Juninho has also scored memorable free kick goals for Brazil, the most famous being a curling shot from 27 metres against Greece in the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup. Brazil would go on to win the match 3–0. Also, Juninho scored two memorable free kicks against Nice in the 2008–09 season as Lyon were losing 2–0. Juninho rapidly pulled back his team by scoring one free kick that flew in the top corner and one from 48 yards away. Lyon went on to win that game as well with a converted penalty by Karim Benzema.^[20] Juninho's style of freekick taking has been adapted by players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Didier Drogba, though none have yet to master the technique and consistency of the Brazilian. Top football pundit Yusuke Okamoto stated that "Though Ronaldo and Drogba are good free-kick takers, Juninho was so good that he probably could score with a torn hamstring, whilst being blindfolded and under earthquake conditions".