Hélio (footballer)

Hélio José de Souza Gonçalves (born 31 January 1986), commonly known as Hélio (Portuguese: [ˈɛlju]; Chinese: 艾里奧, Cantonese: [ŋàːi le̬i (ŋ)ōu]), is a professional footballer who currently plays as a centre back for Hong Kong Premier League club Kitchee.

Born in Brazil, Hélio acquired his HKSAR passport on 31 October 2015 and is eligible to represent Hong Kong on the international level.

Club career

Early career

Hélio transferred from Sántos B to Ceará at the beginning of the 2006–07 season. Then, he joined Olímpia at the beginning of the 2007–08 season without playing a single game for Ceará. He played 20 games for Olímpia, scoring 2 goals. After that, he joined Hong Kong First Division League club Citizen in the winter transfer window 6 months later.

Citizen

Hélio played a total of 111 league games for Citizen, scoring 10 goals in his 6-year stay at the club. He won the HKFA Senior Challenge Shield once with the club. He left the club for Kitchee in the summer transfer window of 2014.

Kitchee

He has played a total of 82 league games for Kitchee thus far, scoring a single goal, and has won the HKPL and the HKFA League Cup twice with the team, and has won the Season play-offs and Senior Challenge Shield once with Kitchee. He also completed the treble with the team in the 2016–17 season.

On 27 March 2018, Hélio suffered an injury after playing for Hong Kong in an AFC Asian Cup qualifier against North Korea and was substituted in the 11th minute. The injury left him out of action for 9 months until he returned on 16 December 2018 as a late substitute against Hoi King.