Juninho Paulista

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Juninho
Personal information
Full name	Osvaldo Giroldo Júnior
Date of birth	February 22, 1973 (age 34)
Place of birth	São Paulo, Brazil
Height	1.67 m (5 ft 6 in)
Nickname	Juninho
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Flamengo
Number	23
Youth clubs
1992-1993	Ituano
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1993-1995 1995-1997 1997-2002 1999-2000 2000-2001 2002 2002-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 2007-	São Paulo Middlesbrough Atlético Madrid Middlesbrough (loan) Vasco da Gama (loan) Flamengo (loan) Middlesbrough Celtic Palmeiras Flamengo	43 (2) 56 (14) 55 (14) 24 (4) 37 (8) 16 (10) 41 (11) 9 (1) 56 (16) 0 (0)
National team2
1995–2003	Brazil	50 (5)[1]
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 15:48, 14 November 2006 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 15:48, 14 November 2006 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Juninho, full name Osvaldo Giroldo Júnior, (born February 22, 1973 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian football midfielder. He was a World Cup winner in 2002. He currently plays for Brazilian side Flamengo. He is also referred to as Juninho Paulista, a nickname based on the common Brazilian diminutive Juninho, used for anyone with the word Junior in their name, combined with Paulista, indicating his place of origin, São Paulo.

Contents 1 Club career 1.1 Middlesbrough: first spell 1.2 Middlesbrough: second spell 1.3 Middlesbrough: third spell 2 International 3 Club Honours 3.1 With São Paulo 3.2 With Vasco da Gama 3.3 With Middlesbrough 3.4 With Flamengo 4 International Honours 4.1 With Brazil 5 Trivia 6 His Dream Team 7 External links

[edit] Club career

Amongst the clubs he had played for during his career include São Paulo, Middlesbrough (in three separate spells), Atlético Madrid, Vasco da Gama (where he played along namesake Juninho Pernambucano), Celtic, Palmeiras, and his current club Flamengo.

[edit] Middlesbrough: first spell

He signed for Middlesbrough in October 1995, just months after they had been promoted to the Premiership. Then 22, he had been tracked by numerous top European clubs and it was a major surprise when he signed for the Tees-siders. He was extremely effective as an attacking midfielder. His skills helped Middlesbrough attain runners-up spot in both cup domestic cup finals in 1997, but a 3-point deduction condemned them for relegation and for some time before then there had been growing speculation that he would leave. Relegation to Division One put paid to any realistic hope that Boro might have had of holding onto Juninho, and he was sold to Atletico Madrid.

[edit] Middlesbrough: second spell

Juninho was loaned back to Middlesbrough during the 1999-2000 season, and scored four goals in 24 games before returning to Atletico Madrid.

[edit] Middlesbrough: third spell

Juninho's third spell at Middlesbrough began in the summer of 2002 when he signed on a permanent basis from Atletico Madrid and spent two years back on the Riverside, collecting a Carling Cup winner's medal before Joining Celtic on a free transfer in 2004. Eventually Juninho went back to Brazil.

[edit] International

For Brazil, Juninho has been capped over 50 times. During 1995 Juninho was given the number 10 shirt, and his performances led the Brazilian captain Dunga to 'worship' him. He was also friends with the fiery forward Edmundo, but the friendship apparently disappeared after Edmundo punched him in the face. Until 2006, they both played for Palmeiras.

Juninho helped his country to the FIFA World Cup title in 2002. He made a significant contribution, playing in 5 of Brazil's 7 matches in the tournament. However in the final itself, he came on only for the last five minutes of the 2-0 win over Germany.

Olympic medal record
Competitor for  Brazil
Men's Football
Bronze	1996 Atlanta	Team Competition

[edit] Club Honours

[edit] With São Paulo

• Libertadores Cup: 1993
• Supercopa Sudamericana: 1993
• Intercontinental Cup: 1993
• Recopa Sudamericana: 1994
• Conmebol Cup: 1994
• Brazilian Champions Cup: 1995

[edit] With Vasco da Gama

• Campeonato Brasileiro Série A: 2000
• Copa Mercosur: 2000

[edit] With Middlesbrough

• English League Cup: 2004

[edit] With Flamengo

• Taça Guanabara - 2007

[edit] International Honours

[edit] With Brazil

• FIFA World Cup: 2002

[edit] Trivia

• Juninho was known as TLF (The Little Fella) by Boro fans and is regarded by most fans as the greatest player to have worn a Boro shirt in the modern era. The nickname is probably due to his height: only 1.67 metres. During his time with Middlesbrough Juninho lived in Levendale and Ingleby Barwick with his parents, and was notorious for playing football in the street with local school children!^{[citation needed]}

[edit] His Dream Team

As he told to Placar a brazilian football magazine, his Dream team is:

• GK - Cláudio Taffarel
• DF - Franco Baresi
• DF - Carlos Gamarra
• DF - Roberto Carlos
• DF - Leandro
• MF - Claude Makélélé
• MF - Kaká
• MF - Toninho Cerezo
• FW - Renato Gaúcho
• FW - Arjen Robben
• FW - Romário
• CO - Telê Santana

[edit] External links

• Juninho Paulista career stats at Soccerbase

Flamengo - Current Squad

1 Bruno | 2 Léo Moura | 3 Moisés | 4 Irineu | 5 Paulinho | 6 Juan | 7 Léo Lima | 8 Claiton | 9 Souza | 10 Renato Augusto | 11 Renato | 12 Diego | 13 Luizinho | 14 Gérson Magrão | 15 Rodrigo Arroz | 16 Thiago | 17 Roni | 18 Leonardo | 19 Léo Medeiros | 20 Jaílton | 21 R. Angelim | 22 Salino | 23 Juninho | 24 Marcelo Lomba | 25 Marlon |  Advaldo |  André |  B. Mezenga |  Helder |  Marcinho |  Obina |  Toró |  William | Manager: Ney Franco

	Brazil squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup Champions (5th Title)
1 Marcos | 2 Cafu | 3 Lúcio | 4 Roque Júnior | 5 Edmílson | 6 Roberto Carlos | 7 Ricardinho | 8 Gilberto Silva | 9 Ronaldo | 10 Rivaldo | 11 Ronaldinho | 12 Dida | 13 Belletti | 14 Anderson Polga | 15 Kléberson | 16 Júnior | 17 Denílson | 18 Vampeta | 19 Juninho | 20 Edílson | 21 Luizão | 22 Rogério Ceni | 23 Kaká | Coach: Scolari