Paulinho took his first steps in professional football on his native soil – in the Brazilian club GO Audax. Then, at a very young age, he left for Central and Eastern Europe. First to Lithuania, where he played for the local Vilnius, and later to Poland. The midfielder from South America spent the entire 2007/08 season in ŁKS Łódź, which took 11th place at the time. Paulinho played in 17 matches. He failed to score a single goal or record an assist.
Paulinho Ends Career After Playing on Three Continents
He quickly returned to his home country, joining the team he trained with. In the following years, he moved to the Brazilian Bragantino, Coimbra and Corinthians, where he made the biggest progress in his career. In total, he played 212 matches there, scoring 40 times and providing 17 assists.
Eventually, the young Brazilian's form was noticed by scouts from Europe. In 2013, at the age of 24, Paulinho joined Tottenham for less than 20 million euros. He did not conquer Premier Leaguebut at the same time it cannot be perceived transfer as a complete failure. In 67 appearances for the English team he scored a total of ten goals. After two years Tottenham sold it to China. GZ Evergrande paid 14 million euros.
At that time, it seemed that the still young Paulinho had taken a path similar to Hulk and Oscar, choosing a big contract instead of developing in Europe. However, the reality turned out to be completely different! In 2017, the Brazilian returned to the old continent. He was taken in by FC Barcelona itself. It is rare for us to witness such a specific career path, in which a footballer returns to a European team from China, Arabia or MLS. A few years ago, Yannick Carrasco made a similar decision. Fans and experts literally laughed at such a move by the Catalan team, but ultimately Paulinho's transfer to Barcelona he wasn't that bad. In 49 games he scored nine goals and added three assists. He stood out above all with his commitment and aggressive play in the midfield. He had the opportunity to play alongside Messi, Suarez and Iniesta – no one can take that away from him.
In the meantime, he was loaned to GZ Evergrande, and at the beginning of 2019 he moved to the Chinese team again permanently. Later, he visited Saudi Al-Ahli, and at the end of his career he returned to Corinthians. On Sunday, September 8, Paulinho, at the age of 36, announced via an emotional video on Instagram that he was hanging up his boots. Interestingly, the former ŁKS player is the fourth Brazilian in the transfer revenue statistics – just behind Neymar, Philippe Coutinho and Malcom. The transactions with his participation amounted to a total of 126.9 million euros. He recorded 56 matches for the national team, scoring 13 times. He played at the World Cup in Brazil (2014) and Russia (2018).