The Blues have started making moves in the transfer window as they announced the signing of the 33 year old Brazilian forward, Clieton Silva. Hailing from Sao Geraldo de Paidade, Clieton has almost 14 years of experience under his belt as a professional footballer.
He started his senior career with the Rio based club Madureira FC after getting promoted from it’s youth setup. After a 2 year long stint with the aforementioned club, he flew far east to Thailand and plied his trade in the Thai top tier league. He has spent almost a decade in Asia excluding a stint with the Mexican second tier club Delfines in the year 2013-14.
With 141 goals in 193 appearances, Clieton is by far the undisputed leader of the Thai League Top Scorer chart. His stay in Thailand spanned for almost 10 years where he played for Super Power Samut Prakan (then known as Osotsapa), Tero Sasana Bangkok, Muangthong United, Chiangrai united and Suphanburi. He also spent a season with Shanghai Shenxin in the Chinese Top tier.
Some of his achievements include, winning the Thai league and the Thai League cup, he has also been awarded the Top scorer twice in the season 2011/12 and 2015/16. He also has a prior experience of playing at the Continental stage as he represented Muangthong and Chiangrai in the AFC Champions League Qualifying rounds where he assisted two goals in 4 appearances.
Cleiton Silva is a player with plethora of experience and he might just fit in the pieces for Bengaluru FC as they probably fell short of a goal poacher in the recently concluded season. Essentially playing as a center forward, Cleiton can also operate on the wings. With a fantastic track record, he might prove to be the perfect addition for the Bengaluru based club who will fancy their chances at the continental stage as they will be participating in the AFC Cup qualifying round in the upcoming season.
“I’ve signed with BFC because I want to be a champion and this is a club that is always after titles. I want to make the club and its fans happy.” said a delighted Clieton Silva as he reacted to his move to India.
BFC have made their first foreign signing for the upcoming season and Cleiton will join alongside Juanan Gonzalez, Erik Paartalu and Dimas Delgado in their foreign contingent. It would be great to witness the Brazilian samba in the Indian Super League. We are also eagerly looking forward for the chemistry between Clieton and Sunil Chhetri in the attack as Bengaluru FC will embark upon their second title run.
