Rodrigao Fernandez

Rodrigo Fernandes Alflen, popularly known as Rodrigao, is a professional football player from Brazil who plays as a striker. Rodrigao began his professional career at the youth division of Jabaquara – SP in his hometown. This is when he was noticed by other clubs and eventually, it was Santos who decided to pick him up in 1999 and bring him to the first team squad.

Rodrigao spent a lot of time in the reserve lineup, making just 9 appearances in three seasons, scoring 2 goals until his departure in 2001. However, during his spell at Santos, he was sent out on loan to Internacional in 2000 and played 15 games to score 7 goals. At the end of his term with Santos, Rodrigao moved to France to play with AS Saint-Etienne for a single season, scoring twice in 7 games.

Despite scoring in the handful of games that he would get, Rodrigao never settled in at any club. In 2002, he returned to Brazil to play for Botafogo. Again, Rodrigao was not a regular in the first team, playing just 13 games to score once. He was then sent to Guarani Futebol Clube on loan to gain some match experience. Rodrigao finally got a full season of football but failed to impress with his 11 goal tally in 31 games. In 2004, he went on another loan spell, this time to Maritimo where he just played 5 games, scoring once, before ending up on the bench for the remainder of the season.

Rodrigao moved to Santo Andre in the Brazilian B division in 2005. He scored 6 goals in 14 games before moving to Clube Atletico Paranaense in 2006. However, Rodrigao failed to create any impact and was sent out on loan to Al-Hilal in the UAE, first, before coming back home to Palmeiras to play 14 games more to end the 2007 season.

He began 2008 with Vitoria on another one of his loan spells before being transferred to Mexico and Indios de Ciudad Juarez in 2009.

At the international level, Rodrigao made an appearance for the Brazilian Under-23 team and scored on debut. However, that would be his one and only appearance for the national team.