Nilmar da Silva

A professional football player from Brazil, Nilmar da Silva plays as a striker. Nilmar began his professional playing career at the Internacional youth academy. From 1999 to 2001, he lit the stage with his performances and as a 17-year old, Nilmar made his debut with the first team. From 2002 to 2004, he made about 42 appearances for the first team, scoring 16 goals and announcing his arrival at the highest level of the game.

In 2004, after helping Internacional win the 2003 and 2004 Campeonato Gaucho titles, Nilmar was called up for the Brazilian age-group teams. He helped the Under-23 side win the 2004 FIFA World Youth Championships before moving onto bigger things.

Olympique Lyonnais decided to bring him on board and Nilmar moved to France in 2004. He played 32 games in 2004-05, scored only 2 goals and won the league title in 2005. However, Lyon decided to sell him to Corinthians in 2005 and Nilmar was back in Brazil. Regaining his old form, the Brazilian scored 30 goals in his 59 games with the Corinthians, winning the 2005 Serie A title with the side. He became the highest scorer in the 2006 version of the Sao Paulo league.

Nilmar returned to Internacional in 2007, after the Corinthians were forced to sell him to pay off their transfer debt to Lyon, for buying him. Nilmar helped Internacional win the 2008 and 2009 Campeonato Gaucho titles as well as the 2008 Copa Sudamericana. Since 2003, Nilmar had been a part of the Brazilian national team but it was only in 2009 that he played regularly and helped the team win the Confederations Cup.

Following the performances at the Confederations Cup, Nilmar was signed up by Villarreal and since signing for the Spanish first division side, Nilmar played 85 times and scored 26 goals. In 2012, Nilmar moved to Al-Rayyan in Qatar after Villarreal were relegated at the end of the 2011-12 season.

At the international scene, Nilmar has played 23 times for the national team and scored 9 goals.