Airton Santos

Airton Ribeiro Santos is a professional football player from Brazil who plays as a midfielder. Airton began his playing career at a small club Nova Iguacu Futebol Clube. Playing for their youth academy, in 2003, Airton spent four seasons before Mesquita Futebol Clube became interested in him. After spending 2007 with the Mesquita youth academy, Airton returned but only for giants Flamengo to show interest.

In 2008, Flamengo brought Airton in with a loan move and let him play around 16 games before deciding to sign him permanently. Airton, since 2007, had been playing for the Nova Iguacu first and youth teams so his inclusion at Flamengo was also a combination of the two, initially. In 2009, Flamengo bought the services of Airton and he became a Flamengo player.

After 31 games, European giants SL Benfica were interested in Airton and brought him over to Portugal. He played just 19 games in 2010, unable to cope with the pace and style of the game, and was sent back to Flamengo on loan, to gain more experience. Airton picked up the 2009 Portuguese league title as well as the 2009-10 and 2010-11 Portuguese Cups during his stay at the Estadio da Luz.

Airton has played 18 games for Flamengo, on his loan move, and has scored a goal as well. Although he is yet to win anything with the team on his loan spell, he was part of the Flamengo side that won the 2008 Taca Guanabara title, the 2009 Taca Rio title, the 2008 and 2009 Rio de Janeiro State League titles as well as the 2009 Serie A title.