Endrick
Souza
Brazil
·
Soccer
Date of birth | 21 July 2006 |
|---|---|
Place of birth | Taguatinga |
Age | 19 |
Nationality | Brazil |
Career start | 2022 |
Disciplines | Soccer (standard) |
With a record-breaking career at famed Brazilian club Palmeiras, the Brazilian national team and now European giants Real Madrid already to his name at the age of just 18, it's safe to say that Endrick Felipe Moreira de Sousa is of Brazil's brightest – and most famous – footballing talents.
The native of Taguatinga, a suburb of national capital Brasilia, Endrick's childhood was not an easy one, marked by extreme poverty, but his footballing talent shone from an early age and he vowed to turn pro to help his family. He started playing football aged four, with his father publishing his goals on YouTube to attract the big Brazilian clubs.
It worked and Endrick joined the historic Palmeiras team in São Paulo at the age of 11, where the young left-footed striker would score and incredible 165 goals in 169 games for Palmeiras's various youth teams.
It wasn't long before he was called up to play for the Palmeiras senior team and on October 6, 2022, aged just 16 years, two months and 16 days, he came on as a second-half substitute in Palmeiras' 4–0 league win over Coritiba to become the youngest-ever player to appear for the team. His goals during the 2022 and 2023 season's helped Palmeiras to secure back-to-back Série A titles – the 11th and 12th in the club's history.
With the word spreading about Brazil's hottest new goal scorer, it didn't take long at all for one of the giants of European football to come calling and in December 2023 Real Madrid agreed to sign Endrick in July 2024, as soon as the player turned 18.
In the meantime, Endrick received his call up to the Brazilian national Under-17 team for the 2022 edition of the Montaigu Tournament in France, which Brazil won for the first time since 1984 thanks to four goals in five games from Endrick, who was named best player of the tournament.
A year later he was selected for the senior national team to participate in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Colombia and Argentina, making Endrick the fourth-youngest player ever to be called up by the Seleção and the youngest male to secure a senior call-up since Ronaldo in 1994. He also became the youngest-ever player to score at the home of football, Wembley Stadium, during Brazil's match against England in March 2024.
Brazil's Copa America 2024 campaign didn't go to plan, suffering a quater-final defeat to Urugua, but Endrick made up for that disappointment with a dream debut La Liga for Real Madrid on the opening day of the 2024-25 season, where he scored the third and final goal in a 3–0 win over Valldolid in front of home fans at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Following a famous lineage of brilliant Brazilian goal scorers, right now Endrick Souza really does have the world at his feet.