Ramires began his career playing for Royal Sport Club, at Barra do Piraí, 114 km north-west of Rio de Janeiro.

In June 2010, Benfica sold 50% of Ramires' economic rights to English player agency Jazzy Limited, directed by Kia Joorabchian, for €6 million.

[9] On 4 August 2010, Benfica announced they had agreed a deal with defending English Premier League champions Chelsea and his third-party owner for €22 million.

On 8 May, Ramires came on as a second-half substitute for Mikel John Obi against Manchester United again at Old Trafford in a 2–1 defeat, which effectively gave their rivals the title.

[21] He scored his sixth goal of the season against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a 2–1 away win, lifting the ball from a tight position into the top left corner of the goalpost, leaving Wolves' goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey beaten.

[23] Ramires also scored against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup semi-final, helping his team defeat their rivals 5–1 on the day and progressing to the final.

On 18 April, Ramires took a pass from Frank Lampard and setup Didier Drogba's extra time goal in Chelsea's shocking 1–0 victory over Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals at Stamford Bridge.

Ramires ended a personally successful season by being nominated for the Chelsea Player of the Year award, but lost to midfielder Juan Mata.

[30] Ramires played all of the 2012 FA Community Shield and assisted Fernando Torres for the opener and filled in for Branislav Ivanović at right back after the Serbian was sent off for a foul on Aleksandar Kolarov, with the team eventually losing 2–3 to Manchester City.

[33] In Chelsea's second-to-last Premier League game of the season, away to Aston Villa, Ramires picked up two yellow cards in the first half and was sent off.

However, Chelsea went on to win 1–2 thanks to two goals from Lampard, who set the goal-scoring record at the club with his second strike,[citation needed] and secured Champions League football for the 2013–14 campaign.

[38] Ramires scored his first Premier League goal of the season on 14 December in a home game against Crystal Palace, putting Chelsea 2–1 up, which eventually proved to be the winner.

[42][43] However, after Guus Hiddink replaced José Mourinho as head coach of the club, Ramires found himself reserved to the substitutes' bench, even though he was in the starting line-up 15 of 23 times.

[44][45] On 29 January 2016, Ramires joined Chinese club Jiangsu Suning on a four-year contract with the transfer fee being a reported £25 million.

[46] The fee was a Chinese record, but was broken twice in the following ten days with the acquisitions of fellow South Americans Jackson Martínez and Alex Teixeira, the latter teaming up with Ramires.

[49] On 5 March, Ramires scored three minutes into his Chinese Super League debut in a 3–0 win against Shandong Luneng before assisting compatriot Alex Teixeira for the second goal.

[51] Ramires scored his first goal of the 2017 season in the last minute of a 1–0 victory against Jeju United in the 2017 AFC Champions League group stage on 22 February 2017.

[55] In a 1–0 victory against Tianjin Tianhai at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre, Ramires scored the only goal of the game and was the man of the match.

[60] Ramires played his first match for the senior national team on 6 June 2009, a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification game against Uruguay, in which he came as a substitute for Elano.

In spite of his slender build, Ramires was a strong tackler, and had been called a "box-to-box midfielder", due to his overall speed, energy, consistency, ability to read the game and high work rate, which enabled him to support his teams at both ends of the pitch by breaking down opposition plays and subsequently starting an attack after winning back possession.

Although not as technically skilful as his compatriots such as Neymar and Willian, he nevertheless possessed good technique, which allowed him to produce moments of attacking brilliance, as exemplified by his Goal of the Year awards while at Chelsea.