Nilmar

Nilmar Honorato da Silva (born 14 July 1984), commonly known as Nilmar, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a striker.

He won club and personal honours with Internacional and Corinthians in Brazil, and also played in France for Lyon and in Spain for Villarreal.

He also had several short spells in the Middle East towards the end of his career.

After coming through the Internacional youth teams, Nilmar was promoted to the main squad in 2002, and appeared regularly during his two-seasons.

Nilmar made his international debut for Brazil in 2003, and scored 9 goals in 24 appearances.

Nilmar was signed for Lyon in summer 2004, initially as cover for fellow Brazilian forward Giovane Élber.

He signed with a clause in his contract that stated that he could be loaned back to Internacional once Élber was fit.

Nilmar made an impressive start during his stint at Lyon, scoring two debut goals as a substitute against Rennes.

He did not score any more goals in the Ligue 1 that season.

With the impending signing of Fred, Lyon chose to loan Nilmar out, this time to Corinthians in his native Brazil.

They were somewhat forced to do this in order to stay within the limit of non-EU players.

As well as this law, Lyon already had four established forwards, namely Fred, Sylvain Wiltord, Milan Baroš, and Sidney Govou, and, despite his good performances with Corinthians, Nilmar was ultimately sold to the South American club, for €10 million.

At Corinthians, the young striker hit the target on his debut against São Paulo FC, with almost his first touch of the ball and he continued to impress fans and critics alike throughout his first season.

His skill, speed, and mazy dribbles helped win him a place in the Brazilian League all-star team for the 2005 season.

Nilmar was consequently available to sign for any club for free, while Corinthians must still pay the transfer debt of €8million they owed to Lyon for Nilmar's original transfer in 2006.

On 17 August 2007, the Justiça do Trabalho (literally "court of employment") cancelled Nilmar's contract because Corinthians and third-party owner MSI owed the player €2 million.

Eventually Corinthians agreed to pay Lyon €6.5 million for the overdue portion of the transfer debt in December 2007.

after losing the case in the Court of Arbitration for Sport and FIFA Players' Status Committee.

In the following month, Nilmar returned to Internacional for undisclosed fee to Corinthians and third-party owners., despite the interest of several major clubs in Europe and Brazil.

It was reported that Inter partnered with D.I.S. to sign 50% economic rights for €3 million.

Internacional had sold 20% economic rights for R$5.46 million to unknown parties in 2007.

He made his new debut for the Porto Alegre team on 4 November 2007, when Inter beat CR Vasco Da Gama 2–1.

He was chosen as the Man of the Match.

In January 2008, he scored an impressive goal against Internazionale of Italy in the Dubai Cup final, which helped his side win the game.

In the summer of 2008, Palermo offered €15 million, with a bonus of up to €3 million.

This was rejected, however, and activated the clause that Internacional bought 20% economic rights from Nilmar for reported €2.4 million, with other parties retained 50% economic rights.

In December 2008, he scored the winning goal in the Copa Sudamericana final match, giving Internacional the title.

It was the first time that the Copa Sudamericana was won by a Brazilian club.

He was part of their squad that won the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and represented his nation at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

In July 2009, Nilmar returned to Europe, signing for Spain's Villarreal CF for an estimated €10 million fee.

He built up a prolific strike partnership with Italy international Giuseppe Rossi, which he likened to his title-winning alliance with Carlos Tevez at Corinthians.

On 17 September 2009, Nilmar scored the winning goal in the Europa League group stage clash against Bulgarian side Levski Sofia.

On 10 March 2011, he netted twice (including a last-minute goal) to help his team to a 3–2 away win against German club Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of a last 16-round match of the Europa League.

He again netted twice against Twente which his side won 5–1 at home.

On 15 July 2012, Qatar Stars League side Al Rayyan announced that they signed Nilmar on a four-year deal, ahead of undergoing a medical.

He was loaned to Lekhwiya for one game on 31 December so that he could take part in the club's friendly match against PSG on 2 January 2013.

He was selected as a cover for Sebastián Soria who was training with the Qatar national team for the upcoming Asian Cup.

On 6 August 2013, he declared to Arabic news network Al Jazeera that he was looking to terminate his loan at Lekhwiya and return to Al Rayyan following a training ground bust up with Lekhwiya first team coach Oliver Rumbold.

On 24 January 2014, Nilmar signed for El Jaish.

On 16 September, already as a free agent, he returned to Internacional for a third spell, signing until December 2017.