Elkeson Cardoso

At 35 years old, Elkeson Cardoso has this physical status:

Elkeson de Oliveira Cardoso, also known as Elkeson or in Chinese as Ai Kesen, is a Chinese-born Chinese professional footballer who plays as either an attacking midfielder or as a forward for Guangzhou Evergrande and the Chinese National Team. He started at Vitória as an attacking midfielder and as a winger, but after his last days in Botafogo, he was moved to attack and has played as a striker.

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Club career

Elkeson first played for Vitória's youth academy before signing with the first team in 2009. During the 2010 season, Elkeson proved himself a breakout success and soon earned himself a move to Botafogo in May 2011.

After two years of being one of Botafogo's star players in the Brasileirão, Guangzhou Evergrande of the Chinese Super League secured his services at the end of the 2012 season.

On 24 December 2012, Guangzhou Evergrande officially announced that they had signed Elkeson on a four-year deal for a fee of €5.7 million. He was not initially included in Guangzhou's 30-player squad for the 2013 AFC Champions League due to the limit on foreign players. On 3 March 2013, he made his debut for Guangzhou in the 2013 Chinese FA Super Cup which Guangzhou Evergrande lost to Jiangsu Sainty 2–1. On 8 March 2013, Elkeson scored his first two goals in China in the opening match of 2013 Chinese Super League against Shanghai Shenxin, which ensured Guangzhou Evergrande's 5–1 victory. He scored thirteen goals in his first seven matches in the league. In July 2013, Elkeson was named in the squad which was submitted for the next stage of the AFC Champions League, replacing Lucas Barrios who had decided to return to Europe.

He scored twenty-four goals in twenty-eight appearances in the Super League which made him the top goalscorer of the season, eight more than the second-placed Carmelo Valencia. He scored six goals in six matches in the AFC Champions League, including two goals across both legs of the 2013 AFC Champions League Final against FC Seoul as Guangzhou was crowned champion of the competition for the first time. The win in the final was the first time a Chinese club had won the trophy in 23 years.

On 1 December 2013 in the first leg of 2013 Chinese FA Cup final against Guizhou Renhe, he was sent off after striking Yang Hao in the face with his hand. On 5 December, he received a ban of 4 matches and was fined ¥20,000 by Chinese Football Association discipline committee.

Guangzhou Evergrande finally lost to Guizhou Renhe 3–2 on aggregate, failing to defend the FA Cup title. Elkeson played all three matches for Guangzhou Evergrande in the 2013 FIFA Club World Cup. On 14 December 2013, he scored Guangzhou's first goal in the FIFA Club World Cup against African champions Al Ahly in the quarter-finals, helping Guangzhou win the match 2–0.

In March 2015, after a match against Changchun Yatai he was heavily criticised for annulling teammate's Gao Lin's certain bicycle kick goal by attempting to poach the goal for himself by just brushing the ball on the line with his head, which meant ultimately that the goal was (correctly) ruled offside and the team only drew the match 1–1.

Elkeson scored the winner as Guangzhou beat Al-Ahli of the UAE to win a second AFC Champions League in three years on 21 November 2015.

On 21 January 2016, Elkeson moved to fellow Super League side Shanghai SIPG with a fee of ¥132 million (€18.5 million).

On 4 April 2018, Elkeson scored his side's only goal in their 1–1 draw with Kawasaki Frontale in the group stage of the AFC Champions League. The goal was Elkeson's 27th in the competition proper, moving him to fourth all time in the top scoring charts.

On 18 September 2018, Elkeson scored the winning goal for Shanghai SIPG, as the club recorded its first ever win in the Super League against his former club Guangzhou Evergrande. The win cemented SIPG's position in first place at the top of the league table. On 7 October, Elkeson scored again as SIPG recorded a 5–0 win over bottom-of-the-table Guizhou Hengfeng to extend their lead over his former club at the top of the table to 4 points with just over a month of the season left. On 7 November, Elkeson played part in Shanghai's 2–0 win over Beijing Renhe in the penultimate round of fixtures. The win secured Shanghai SIPG's first Chinese Super League title and ended Guangzhou Evergrande's seven year title reign.

On 9 July 2019, Elkeson returned to his former club Guangzhou Evergrande. Elkeson reportedly agreed a €10 million (US$11.2 million) annual salary to return, up from €6 million in Shanghai. At the time of his transfer, the two clubs were level on points, and were two points behind leaders Beijing Guoan. Elkeson marked his return to Guangzhou with goals in his first two games, and a hat-trick against local rivals Guangzhou R&F in his third match on 20 July.

On 13 December 2021, Elkeson has confirmed his departure from Guangzhou FC.

International career

In September 2011, Elkeson received his first call up for Brazil national football team by Mano Menezes for the second leg of 2011 Superclásico de las Américas against Argentina. However, he didn't play for Brazil in the match.

Elkeson was called up to the Chinese national team in August 2019, following gaining Chinese citizenship via naturalisation. Elkeson subsequently became the first player to be called up for China without any Chinese ancestry.

Following his naturalisation as a Chinese citizen, his name is rendered as Ai Kesen in Chinese (Chinese: 艾克森; pinyin: Ài Kèsēn). Prior to that, he used the Chinese transliterated name Ai Er'kesen (Chinese: 埃尔克森); in Cantonese speaking areas such as Guangzhou and Hong Kong, he was known as Ngai Git-san (Chinese: 艾傑臣).

However, in 2022, Elkeson unofficially retired from the national team after his transfer to Gremio, reverting back to Brazilian citizenship.

Career statistics

As of 30 May 2021. China score listed first, score column shows score after each Elkeson goal.

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