Leandro Makelele

Leandro dos Santos de Jesus is a professional footballer from Brazil. The defensive midfielder is better known as Makelele. His youth career began in 2004 at Santo Andre. The following year, he broke into the first team at Santo Andre where he played for 2 seasons. He had 35 appearances in those two seasons and scored 4 goals.

In 2007, Makelele transferred to Palmeiras for two seasons but failed to make any impact to get into the first team. He did have 26 appearances that year but most came as a substitute. In 2008, he moved to Gremio in the hopes of getting a more secure place in the starting lineup and has been a steady part of the starting lineup.