Ilan Araujo

A professional football player from Brazil, Ilan Araujo Dall’Lgna plays as a striker. Ilan began his playing career at Parana Clube, where he joined the youth team. He played his way up into the first team in 1999, making his debut and scoring twice in the 12 league appearances he got over two seasons. He moved to Sao Paulo in 2001 and scored once that season, in 12 games, before moving onto Atletico Paranaense later that same year.

At his new club, Ilan enjoyed some of the best football he had ever played and between 2001 and 2004, he scored 22 times in 64 games. Ilan was mainly a substitute for his team but the impact he had on the team, when coming on, won him the opportunity to play for the Brazilian national team. In 2003, Ilan played three games for senior national team.

In 2004, after finishing his contract with Atletico, Ilan drew interest from Europe and Sochaux came hunting for his signature. He signed with the French side and kept his appearances up, scoring 24 times over two seasons and earned a move to Saint-Etienne in 2006. A regular starter for Saint-Etienne, Ilan played over 105 league games for the club but scored just 26 goals. However, his performance for the team was always quite stable and that prompted West Ham United to come in for his signature.

In 2010, after leaving Saint Etienne, Ilan tried to make his mark on West Ham but after scoring 4 times in 11 appearances, he left the club for a move back to Brazil. The West Ham move came from the fact that Ilan had moved from Saint-Etienne to West Ham on a 6-month contract, having left the French side on a free transfer, in January.

He moved to Internacional, in Brazil, but only managed to play 4 times over the course of the year. However, he was picked up by AC Ajaccio, based on the island of Corsica, to play in the French league. At the end of 2012, Ilan made his move to SC Bastia, after scoring 6 goals in 26 appearances for Ajaccio – the local rivals.