Afonso Alves Martins

Afonso Alves Martins Jr, Afonso [a'fõsu 'auvis] (born January 30, 1981) is a Brazilian footballer currently playing for Dutch side SC Heerenveen.

Club career

Afonso started his career with Brazilian side Atlético Mineiro. In 2002 he left Atlético for Swedish side Örgryte IS in Gothenburg. In 2004 he moved to Malmö FF, where he won the Allsvenskan title that year. He stayed for the 2005 season in Malmö scoring 14 in 24 games, becoming top-scorer in the club second year running when Malmö finished fifth. He started the 2006 season with a few goals in the spring before moving to SC Heerenveen, where he followed in the footsteps of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Marcus Allbäck, Jon Dahl Tomasson, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Georgios Samaras. With a price-tag of 4,5 million euros he is Heerenveen's most expensive signing in the club's history.

Alves finished second in the Swedish Top Goal scoring league two years in a row. In 2007, he finished as top goalscorer of the Eredivisie 2006/2007 with 34 goals, which is a club record. Afonso Alves is the third Brazilian who became topscorer in the Eredivisie, joining the former PSV Eindhoven strikers, Romario and Ronaldo, and the second Brazilian who scored over 30 goals in the Eredivisie, Ronaldo scored 30 goals in the season 1994/1995. He won the golden shoe for the Eredivisie and finished second in the race for the European Golden Boot, 1 point behind Francesco Totti.

International career

On May 17, 2007 Alves received his first call-up for the Brazil national football team for the last friendlies against England national football team and Turkey national football team. On June 1, 2007 in the game against England national football team, Alves was brought on to replace Kaká after 26 minutes of play. Alves was part of the Brazilian squad which won the Copa America 2007 in Venezuela. Alves scored his first international goal on 12th September 2007 against Mexico in a 3-1 win .