[citation needed] Nilmar made an impressive start during his stint at Lyon, scoring two debut goals as a substitute against Rennes.

[1] As well as this law, Lyon already had four established forwards, namely Fred, Sylvain Wiltord, Milan Baroš, and Sidney Govou, and, despite his good performances with Corinthians, Nilmar was ultimately sold to the South American club, for €10 million.

[2] At Corinthians, the young striker hit the target on his debut against São Paulo FC, with almost his first touch of the ball and he continued to impress fans and critics alike throughout his first season.

On 17 August 2007, the Justiça do Trabalho (literally "court of employment") cancelled Nilmar's contract[3] because Corinthians and third-party owner MSI owed the player €2 million.

In the following month, Nilmar returned to Internacional for undisclosed fee to Corinthians and third-party owners.,[4] despite the interest of several major clubs in Europe and Brazil.

In January 2008, he scored an impressive goal against Internazionale of Italy in the Dubai Cup final, which helped his side win the game.

[10] He built up a prolific strike partnership with Italy international Giuseppe Rossi, which he likened to his title-winning alliance with Carlos Tevez at Corinthians.

[11] On 17 September 2009, Nilmar scored the winning goal in the Europa League group stage clash against Bulgarian side Levski Sofia.

[12] On 10 March 2011, he netted twice (including a last-minute goal) to help his team to a 3–2 away win against German club Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of a last 16-round match of the Europa League.

On 15 July 2012, Qatar Stars League side Al Rayyan announced that they signed Nilmar on a four-year deal, ahead of undergoing a medical.

[19] In September, after just 39 minutes of action in two appearances, his contract was suspended with the player alleging "personal reasons"; it was later revealed that he was suffering with depression.

After four years out of the national team, on 29 August 2008, Nilmar was recalled by coach Dunga as a replacement for the injured Rafael Sóbis for World Cup qualifiers against Chile and Bolivia.