The Brazilian footballer Ari has long become almost native to Russian fans, because here he has been playing in different clubs since 2010. This article will talk about the biography and sports career of a talented striker.
Difficult childhood
Ariclenez da Silva Ferreira, or simply Ari, was born in December 1985 in the Brazilian town of Fortaleza. Like almost all children in poor neighborhoods, the boy, already at the age of seven, was forced to earn money by selling fruit in the local market. In his free time, he drove the ball with friends in the yards or on the coast.
It was with beach football that the future career of the striker began. From the age of 15, Ari began to seriously train, participating in various amateur tournaments.
The beginning of a professional career
Ari's football biography literally started on the beach. It was there that the scouts of the team from the third most powerful league in Brazil “Avai” noticed him and invited him. However, the attacker did not stay there for long - in the same 2004 he moved to Fortaleza. But here, the 20-year-old striker did not stay long.
Like most Brazilian football players, Ari wanted to try his hand at one of the European championships. With the help of his agent, he found an option to continue his career in the championship of Sweden.
Relocation to Europe
In 2006, Ari signed a contract with the Scandinavian club Kalmar. In the first season for himself in Sweden, the Brazilian striker scored 15 accurate shots in 23 fights. He became the top scorer not only in his team, but in the entire league.
In the second season, the performance of the Brazilian has deteriorated greatly. In 12 games, he managed to score only three times. In addition, Ari was very restless in character. Sometimes during matches he even started fights with footballers of opposing teams. But there were also pleasant moments: for example, the victory of “Squid” in the Cup of Sweden.
In 2007, Ari's sports career continued in the Netherlands. The striker signed a 5-year contract with Alkmaar AZ. In the first match for the championship of the Netherlands, Ari scored a double at the goal of “Venlo”. In total, in the 2007/08 season, the striker scored 9 goals in the domestic championship and 1 in the European Cups.
The following year, Ari brought the championship title. Together with AZ, he won the Dutch championship. It was then that more eminent clubs from Germany and Spain, as well as Moscow Spartak, became interested in talented Brazilian strikers. But AZ stubbornly refused to sell a promising young player.
Everything changed with the bankruptcy of the Dutch team’s main sponsor, as well as with the arrival of new coach Ronald Kuman, who prioritized the task of playing young local football players rather than inviting foreign players. In February 2010, Ari moved to Spartak Moscow for $ 4 million.
Russian stage of career
As part of the “red-white" Brazilian football player Ari gradually began to return to its former athletic form. Already in the third game for himself in the new team, he scored the winning goal for Lokomotiv. In that championship, he scored 7 times with accurate shots in the championship, and twice more in Eurocups.
In the 2011/12 season, Ari became an indispensable player in the main team of Spartak. In 38 games of the Premier League, he upset rival goalkeepers 10 times, three more times in the Champions League matches. After a successful season, representatives of the French club Monaco wanted to buy the rights to the player, but Spartak refused to sell an important player.
As part of the “red-white" Ari spent another year, after which he did not want to renew the contract with the capital's team. The Brazilian for $ 2 million moved to Krasnodar, where he was offered favorable conditions.
Ari quickly got used to the new team and began to do his favorite thing - to score beautiful and important goals. In March, he designed a hat-trick at the gates of his former club - “Spartacus”.
After that, there was another successful season for the football player Ari. He not only played regularly in the first team, but also became the team's top scorer in Eurocups. In 10 games, he scored 6 goals.
In early 2016, Ari was leased to the Moscow Lokomotiv until the end of the season. Already in the debut match, the Brazilian striker made a double against the “Wings of the Soviets”. He scored another goal for Moscow Spartak.
In May 2017, a football player in the Lokomotiv victory for the Cup of Russia took part in a fight, as a result of which he and three other players received red cards.
At the end of the season, the “railroad” extended Ari's lease for another year. In the second round of the championship, he scored a goal against CSKA, but at the end of the game he received a serious injury, as a result of which he dropped out for a long time.
Team appearances
For the first time, the soccer player Ari received an invitation to the Brazilian youth team in 2005. He took part in 13 qualifying matches for the World Cup and scored 6 goals, but he was not taken to the final part of the championship.
A year later, the head coach of the national team of Brazil Carlos Dunga called the striker in the national team, but his debut did not take place.
In 2015, Ari applied for Russian citizenship. He claims that he can help the team at the home World Cup in 2018.