João Carlos

João Carlos is a central defender for Spartak Moscow. He was born on 1 January 1982 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. João began his professional career in 2001 at local Vasco da Gama. He made 13 appearances for the club in the Brazilian national championship. But already in 2002 João moved to Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia, and won the Bulgarian Championship right in his debut season in Bulgarian A PFG. João spent two at Sofia before having completed a move to Belgian Lokeren in July 2004. There Carlos stayed for 4 years and made a total of 114 appearances and scored 8 goals in Belgian Pro League. In June 2008, after lengthy negotiations with Genk, Lokeren agreed to sell João Carlos to the club from Limburg. In 2009, as part of Genk first team, João won Belgian Cup.

In January 2011 there appeared information that Kuban Krasnodar and Anzhi Makhachkala showed interest in João Carlos. At the end of January 2011 the Brazilian signed for the Dagestani club. Later Anzhi head coach said that he watched Carlos’ progress for quite a while, but didn’t have enough funds to buy him. Carlos made his debut for Anzhi in March 2011 in a Russian Cup match against Zenit Saint Petersburg, but was replaced by Shamil Lakhiyalov 14 minutes later due to an injury.

After two fruitful seasons with the club from Makhachkala Carlos switched for Spartak Moscow in August 2013.