Lima (footballer)

Rodrigo José Lima dos Santos ( born August 11, 1983 in Monte Alegre ), known as Lima, is a Brazilian football player in the service of the Portuguese record champions Benfica.

Career

The 1.80 meter tall and 78 kg Lima played for nine different clubs in Brazil. In the 38th season of the Campeonato Brasileiro de Futebol 2008, he scored a goal for Santos and then moved, after having crushed a change in the Ukraine Metalist Kharkiv to, to Portugal to Belenenses Lisbon. Here he met regularly, but missed the target relegation in the Liga Sagres in the relegation.

He then joined Sporting de Braga, a club where many fellow countrymen of his play, and signed a three-year contract. On 24 August 2010 he scored a hat-trick as a substitute in the UEFA Champions League game in the second half of the third qualifying round against FC Sevilla, resulting in a 4:3 away win (total: 5:3 ) resulted. In the UEFA Europa League Lima in 2011 with his club lost the final against FC Porto 0:1.

For the season 2012/13 Lima moved for 4.5 million euros for Portuguese giants Benfica and signed a contract for four years.