Dudu Cearense

Dudu Cearense, who is known as Alexandro Silva de Sousa, is one of the most creative young midfielders in modern Brazilian football. A fantastic talent known for his passing, tackling and heading ability, Dudu has been known to be the main-stay of his team's midfield. Despite being a holding midfielder, primarily, Dudu is a fantastic talent going forward.

Dudu was noticed at the Ceara Sporting Clube youth academy, in 1998. He was brought into the slightly better youth academy of Esporte Clube Vitoria, where he spent two seasons, in 1999 and 2000. Dude broke into the first team at Vitoria and was slowly making his way into the playing eleven. In 2002, he was part of the team that won the Supercampeonato Baiano and the following year, he helped the team win the Campeonato Baiano.

In 55 appearances for the club, Dudu was a permanent fixture of the team and scored seven goals in that duration, winning the Copa do Nordeste along the way as well. He played for the Brazilian national team at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championships and won the Golden Boot award with four goals.

In 2004, Dudu moved eastwards and his move coincided with a call up to the Brazilian Copa America squad. He moved to Kashiwa Reysol and played eleven games, scoring twice. However, 2004 was the year when Dudu won his Copa America winner's medal, despite not playing any significant part in the campaign.

After spending off-season time at Kashiwa, to stay in shape, Dudu moved to France where he signed up with Stade Rennais FC. A single season with the French side yielded 1 goal from 15 caps, enough to gain the attention of CSKA Moskov, a side that was looking to begin its dominance in the European Leagues.

Dudu stated off his CSKA career with Runner-up medal at the 2005 UEFA Super Cup, which CSKA was a part of courtesy of their UEFA Cup win. In the league, Dudu helped the Russian side win the league title for two consecutive seasons, in 2005 and 2006. CSKA also won the Russian Cup in both those seasons, as well as the 2008 Cup. Dudu was pulling the strings in the midfield and ended up leaving CSKA with over 70 caps and 7 goals.

Dudu went over to Greece and signed with Greek giants Olympiacos. The signing came a year after Olympiacos gave their prime target a lucrative deal in 2007. CSKA didn't approve the deal that season, but in 2008, decided to let him go for 6 million Euro. His three seasons with the Greeks saw Dudu win the 2009 and 2011 Greek league title as well as the 2009 Greek Cup.

At the end of the contract, in 2011, despite signing an extension, Dudu left Olympiacos and returned to Brazil, signing up with Atletico Mineiro. He has been part of the Brazilian national team since 2004 and has earned 11 caps with the side.