A glimpse into the career of Chennaiyin’s new attacking recruit…
Chennaiyin FC‘s foreign contingent this time around has five new faces from last season. After reaching the final in the last Indian Super League (ISL) season, they have retained only two of their foreign stars in Rafael Crivellaro and Eli Sabia.
Two important players upfront in Andre Schembri and Nerijus Valskis have left the club and the Marina Machans have responded by bringing in Jakub Sylvestr and Esmaël Gonçalves.
Goncalves, known as just Isma, is a strongly built forward who can play as a striker or as a winger. He is good at hold-up play but also has a good turn of pace about him, not to mention a strong physique.
He has played in the top tiers of Portugal, Scotland, France among other countries in Asia and more. Let’s take a look at the 29-year-old’s career so far.
Youth career in Portugal and debut in France
Isma was born in Guinea-Bissau but migrated along with his parents to Portugal at the age of three. He would join the youth set up at Boavista at a young age and spent three years there. His strong performances in the youth set up at Boavista attracted attention from established European clubs including Liverpool. However, he would end up moving to Ligue 1 outfit OGC Nice in 2008.
He spent two years in their youth team and was promoted to the reserves in 2010. After a successful period with the reserves, he was called up to the first team in January 2011. He made his professional debut in a 2–0 defeat to Bordeaux, appearing as a substitute. He would not make any more appearances for Nice that season but was given a professional contract in June 2011.
He made 17 appearances in the 2011-12 season, scoring two goals including the winner in a 4–3 victory at Lyon in the final league match of the season. But he would return to Portuguese outfit Rio Ave in the very next season after he grew homesick.
However, after just six months, he joined Scottish outfit St. Mirren on loan in January 2013. Local media in Scotland even went on to call him the next Didier Drogba who was also Isma’s idol. He made an instant impact at St. Mirren, scoring on his debut against Celtic in a 3-2 win in a Scottish League Cup semifinal. He also scored on his Scottish Cup debut for St. Mirren. He would go on to play a starring role in the League Cup final against Hearts, scoring one and assisting another in a 3-2 win – the club’s first major trophy since 1987.
Though the club wanted to make Goncalves’ deal permanent, Rio Ave would not budge from their high asking price and he had to return. In July 2013, he was sent out on loan to Cyprus’ APOEL, for whom also he would score on debut in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round. He would end his stint with APOEL in December 2013 and signed for Greek club PAE Veria in January 2014, again on loan.
He would go on loan to another Cyprus club Anorthosis before deciding to end his association with Rio Ave in 2015, signing permanently for Anorthosis. He would end up joining Hearts in January 2017, for whom he would score 15 goals in 42 appearances.
He left Hearts in January 2018 and sign for Uzbek club Pakhtakor Tashkent. His Asian sojourn saw Isma play for the likes of Iran‘s Esteghlal and Japan‘s Matsumoto Yamaga.
International football
Isma is a naturalised Portuguese citizen and has played for the Seleccao’s youth teams. He has represented the Portuguese U17 side and was called up to the U20 team in the run up to the 2011 FIFA U20 World Cup. But he could not make it into the final squad due to fitness issues.
He would go on to earn a senior cap for his country of birth Guinea-Bissau in 2018, starting a 2-0 friendly loss to Burkina Faso. However, that is the only international appearance so far for Isma.
Last stint
Isma’s last stint before joining Chennaiyin was in Japan with Matsumoto Yamaga. In the 2019 season, where he joined only in September, he made three appearances as the club were relegated from the J1 League.
In 2020, in the J2 League, he made six appearances for the club but could not score a goal.
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