Maxwell came through the ranks at Cruzeiro and played for Ajax, Inter Milan, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, winning trophies for each of these clubs.

Maxwell's contract with Ajax was restructured to expire early, on 2 January 2006,[6] in order to facilitate his move to Internazionale on a free transfer.

Due to non-EU player registration quota per year, however, he was signed by Empoli until the end of season[7] before being officially transferred to Inter, a deal similar to that of Júlio César's move to Chievo.

Maxwell started Barcelona's first competitive match of the 2010–11 season, the first leg of the 2010 Supercopa de España, in an advanced left-wing position; he assisted the opening goal for Zlatan Ibrahimović.

[15] On 4 February 2015, Maxwell scored the only goal as PSG defeated Lille away to reach the Coupe de la Ligue Final.

[17] Maxwell earned his first full senior international cap on 14 August 2013, coming on as a substitute in a 1–0 friendly defeat to Switzerland in Basel.

[19] He made his only appearance in the tournament in the third-place play-off, held in Brasília, starting at left-back as Brazil were defeated 3–0 by the Netherlands; he played the full 90 minutes in his final international match.

[22] A technical, diminutive attacking left-back, Maxwell made a name for himself as an excellent, dependable, intelligent, experienced, successful, and largely underrated defender throughout his career, who was known above all for his consistency and longevity at the top level.

A versatile player, he was also extremely effective going forward due to his skill and pace; indeed, during the course of a match, he often pushed further up the pitch with his offensive runs down the left flank, in order to get into good positions from which he could deliver crosses to teammates in the area, or help to stretch the play, and was also capable of playing in a more advanced role as a left-winger, either in midfield, or in a three-man attack.