[1] He was promoted to the first team in 2001,[2] and subsequently represented Nacional de Muriaé[3] before joining Série A club Paraná in 2004.
After being rarely used, Kempes moved to Espírito Santo and played for Estrela do Norte[4] and Vitória, winning the 2006 Campeonato Capixaba with the latter.
[6] In 2008 Kempes joined Caxias,[7] and after being the club's top goalscorer in the year's Campeonato Gaúcho, signed for Ipatinga on loan;[8] at the latter he scored his first top tier goal, in a 2–1 home win against Fluminense on 10 August.
[11] He failed to impress during his spell at Lusa, and subsequently served loan spells at Novo Hamburgo,[12] Ceará,[13] América Mineiro[14] and Cerezo Osaka before joining JEF United Chiba permanently on 1 February 2013.
The aircraft was taking the Chapecoense team to Medellin where they would play the first match of finals of 2016 Copa Sudamericana.