Very often, Brazilian soccer players become the stars of European football, even now one of the strongest players in the world is Neymar, who plays for the Spanish “Barcelona”. However, he is not the only one playing in Europe, for example, you can take such a football player as Luis Gustavo. This Brazilian defensive midfielder found his place in Germany, where for some time he played for one of the strongest clubs in the world - Bayern Munich. Luis Gustavo is famous for his reliability, as well as good penetrating passes and leadership spirit. What is his career path? Where did he play besides Bayern, and also in which club now?
Carier start
Luis Gustavo was born July 23, 1987 in Brazil, from an early age went to the football academy of the Corinthians club from the city of Alagoano. It was there that he went in for sports, progressed as a football player, until in 2005 he received a professional contract. He spent two years in a team, until he was rented in 2007 by another Brazilian club called “KRB”. The lease lasted only a few months, and already in the summer the young talent returned to his native club. It turned out that European scouts were watching him, and at the age of 22 he went to conquer Europe. The first European club in which Luis Gustavo ended up was the German Hoffenheim.
Rent and transfer to Hoffenheim
At that time, Hoffenheim played in the second German division, and such defensive talent as Louis Gustavo was extremely useful to them. The footballer helped cement the center of the field, and thanks in large part to his talent, the Hoffenheim ended up in the first Bundesliga. Naturally, the club immediately decided to redeem the rights to the Brazilian football player, especially considering that it cost only one million euros. As a full-fledged player in the club, Gustavo spent two and a half seasons at Hoffenheim, during which he entered the field 79 times and scored two goals. In the winter of 2011, it turned out that Bayern Munich just needed a defensive midfielder, and the Brazilian became an ideal candidate. The Munich club paid 17 million euros for it.
Ascent to Bavaria
Naturally, every player dreams of playing for a club of such a scale as Bayern, was not an exception and Luis Gustavo. The biography of the midfielder developed in a way that he could not even imagine before. Almost all the time he was in Bavaria, he was considered as a base player: for two and a half years he played exactly a hundred matches, scoring six goals. And most importantly - he became part of the same machine that won the “treble” in the 12/13 season, that is, it won all three competitions in which it participated: in the Bundesliga, in the German Cup and in the Champions League. Immediately after this, the club changed the coach, and the new mentor Gustavo was not needed. As a result, in the summer of 2013, it was sold for 16 million euros to Wolfsburg.
A new beginning at Wolfsburg
While in Bavaria Gustavo could only rely on the role of a reservist, in Wolfsburg he immediately became one of the main stars. In the first season, he entered the field 33 times and scored four goals. Soon he received a captain's armband and in the next two seasons he played 76 matches, scoring 8 goals and winning the German Cup in 2015, and then the Super Cup. In the current season, Gustavo entered the field only three times, after which he was injured, from which he is still recovering.
Team appearances
In the Brazilian national team, Luis Gustavo already played in 41 matches, although he was called up for the first time only when he was 24 years old: he was replaced in a friendly match against the German national team in August 2011. In 2013, he went to the Confederations Cup as a member of the national team , where he played all six matches at the base and contributed to the victory of his team in the tournament. He was also a base player at the 2014 World Cup, where the Brazilians reached the semifinals, lost to the Germans there, and then lost to the Dutch in the match for third place. The last time Gustavo was called in May 2016 for a friendly match against the Panama national team.