Roger Flores

Roger Galera Flores is a professional football player who plays as a midfielder. Having begun his playing career at the youth academy in Fluminense, Roger made it into the first team squad in 1996. However, he would only make his debut in 1999, under Carlos Alberto Parreira who compared Roger to Diego Maradona. After being part of the team that won the 1998 Taca Rio title, the coach began building the side around players like Roger, and that helped them seal the 1999 Serie C title. He ended up with 47 appearances for the team, scoring 8 goals and catching the eye of European giants, Benfica.

In 2000, Roger was a member of the Brazilian Under-20 national team and, at the same time, was picked by Benfica to play for them in the Portuguese League. The Portugal adventure didn’t go well and Roger spent two of those five seasons on loan to Fluminense. He played 17 games for Fluminense on his first loan spell and then went on to play 33 in his second spell, scoring 5 goals in each spell. For Benfica, Roger ended his contract with just 36 appearances, most of which came as a substitute. During his first loan spell, Roger won the 2002 Campeonato Carioca before returning to Portugal to win the Supertaca de Portugal in 2003-04.

In 2005, Roger moved back to Brazil and signed up with a Corinthians team that won the 2005 Serie A title. Despite spending 2007 on loan to Flamengo and the beginning of 2008 in a loan move to Gremio, Roger played almost 60 games for Corinthians and scored 11 goals. He moved to Qatar SC in 2008-09, playing 20 games and scoring four times before being lent out, once again, to Al-Sailiya for another 9 matches.

In 2010, Roger returned to Brazil and signed for Cruzeiro, and has become a regular member of the first team with over 70 games under his belt and 10 goals as well. At the international level, Roger was a part of the Brazilian Under-23 squad in 2000, but made his senior debut for just one game, in 2004, and even though he scored twice in that game, Roger never received another call-up.