[1] Having extensively traveled around Brazil and Europe during the first part of his career due to frequent loan spells, Júnior has turned out to be a late bloomer since the start of his adventure in Asian football, thanks to a streak of successful seasons in Thailand and South Korea.

[5] His impressive performances for Nacional made him earn a partnership with agent Eduardo Uram (co-owner of Brazilian investment fund Europe Sports Group) and attracted several high-profile teams across the nation:[6] in the end, it was Corinthians that signed the promising center-forward in 2007.

[7] The unstable condition of the club, together with a lack of support from the ESG management, reportedly due to the Brazilian's "economically unfruitful" playing position,[6] hugely affected Júnior's career, as the center-forward began what ended up to be a considerably long cycle of loan spells across Brazil and Europe.

After a few weeks spent training with Germinal Beerschot as a trialist, Júnior got his first proper chance to shine in European football, signing a one-year loan deal with the Belgian side on 28 August 2010.

In comparison to the previous season, Júnior had less game time, being primarily used as a back-up striker both for the aforementioned Moussilou and Jocelyn Roux: nevertheless, he kept on gaining experience and ended his spell in Switzerland with a total number of 23 appearances and nine goals.

Júnior joined the club on their tour of several ASEAN countries, and made his debut in a friendly match against Vietnamese side Becamex FC: in the same occasion, he headed his first goal in (whereas another one was invalidated due to offside), but Muangthong eventually suffered a 2–1 loss.

[9] He actually started his first official match for the club on 2 February 2016, as Muangthong beat Malaysian side Johor Darul Ta'zim at the penalty shoot-out and progressed to the following qualification round to the AFC Champions League group stage.

Being featured on the pitch from the front to the back of the match in the most part of the occasions, Júnior kept on scoring regularly, including a hat-trick (the fourth of his career) in Pattaya's last fixture of the season, a 4–1 home victory against Nakhon Ratchasima.

This way, what initially seemed to be a difficult season for the center-forward saw him score a total number of 20 goals in the Thai League: he consequently joined Dragan Bošković and Heberty as the second top scorer ex aequo of the competition (with the first one being Cleiton Silva, Júnior's fellow Brazilian and team-mate at Muangthong just some months before), and he gave Pattaya (now defunct and renamed to Samut Prakan City) a great helping hand to stay afloat in the local top-tier.

After his exploit in Thailand, Júnior gained popularity throughout the continent: in 2017, he decided to join South Korean team Daegu FC, which had just got promoted to K League 1 again and proceeded to include the striker in its roster alongside fellow Brazilians Evandro and Cesinha.

Once he got on the pitch again in August, he was initially used a substitute in order to facilitate his full recover: however, at the third occasion since his return, Júnior scored the winner in another match against Gwangju, rebounding the ball in the back of the net after Yoon Bo-sang saved his penalty kick.

Another goal from the bench in a draw against Sangju Sangmu and a winning brace against Pohang Steelers (with the latter being the first game he played from the start since his injury in March) gave Júnior a regular spot in the team back.

Having scored 12 goals in only 16 matches since his return, Júnior became Daegu's top scorer and helped the "Sky Blues" in their successful fight to stay in the national top-tier, together with team-mates such as Jo Hyeon-woo, Kim Sun-min and Cesinha.

He made his debut with the Kim do-hoon-guided side on 13 February 2018, coming in for Yohei Toyoda at the 76th minute of a 3–3 away draw against Melbourne Victory in the first game of AFC Champions League's group stage.

As the K League stopped throughout the whole month of June, due to the participation of the South Korea national team to the World Cup, Júnior had more time to recover and returned on the pitch as soon as the competition restarted in July: he immediately scored other two goals against Sangju, then had to wait four more games before finding the net again, in two consecutive matches against Daegu and Jeju United.

[12] The following season began quite in the same fashion for the Brazilian, immediately scoring a goal in Ulsan's 5–1 home win against Malaysian side Perak TBG to advance to the AFC Champions League's group stage.

The team won all of the five remaining matches of their group against FC Tokyo, Shanghai Shenhua and Perth Glory, with Júnior scoring a goal in each one of the games against the Australian side (also adding an assist for Kim In-sung in the second one).

[2][24] After four years full of achievements, the Brazilian's journey in South Korea came to an end on 28 January 2021: on that day, Ulsan published Júnior's official farewell speech on their YouTube channel, as he announced that the club and him agreed to let his contract expire, observing that he "wanted and needed to change", even though he stressed that "he would always support the team".