Araujo Soares

A professional football player from Brazil, Clemerson de Araujo Soares plays as a striker. Araujo began his playing career at Clube Atletico do Porto, as a youth team player. In his final season as a youth squad member, in 1996, Araujo caught the eye of many teams but it was Goias Esporte Clube who got his signature as a professional player. Araujo was an instant hit at Goias, playing every single league game and notching up around 170 appearances between 1997 and 2003.

He even scored 50 goals despite being a defender, helping the team win the Goias State League title 5 times (1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2003). He also led the club to the Serie B title in 1999 as well as to three Brazilian Centre-West Cups in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

Araujo had also been a part of the Brazilian Under-23 national team and with 3 caps, he also had 3 goals to his name.

In 2004, Araujo would move to Japan and sign up with Shimizu S-Pulse in the J-League. After 10 goals in 36 games, he moved to Gamba Osaka and scored a brilliant 41 goals in 46 games. That caught the eye of Cruzeiro who decided to bring Araujo back to Brazil. During his time in Japan, Araujo had been the highest scorer in the league in 2005 and was also named as the Most Valuable Player for that season. That 2005 season where he scored 33 league goals in 33 games put Araujo on the top of the list of the world’s highest scorers for that year.

However, upon his return, Araujo got injured and only played once for the side in the first season. He would play just 14 games the following season, scoring 5 goals and after being unable to recreate his old form, was sold off to Al-Gharafa in Qatar.

Araujo found his scoring touch once again, hitting 113 goals in 133 games in the Qatar Stars League and Cup. He ended up leading his team to the league title in 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10. The Cup win came in 2009-10 while the Emir of Qatar Cup title was won in 2009 along with the Qatar Crown Prince Cup.

Araujo returned to Brazil in 2011 and signed with Fluminense. However, after playing just 6 games throughout the year, Araujo decided to move to Clube Nautico on loan for the 2012 season.