Gustavo Martins

Gustavo Martins made his way to Grêmio the long way round, before he ever kicked a ball for a professional first team. Born in Niterói, he started out at Fluminense, then spent stretches at Vasco da Gama, Botafogo and a second spell at Vasco, before a youth move to Canto do Rio. At sixteen, in 2018, he joined Grêmio's academy.

He needed a loan to Caxias in the Campeonato Gaúcho to get senior minutes before Grêmio brought him into the first-team picture properly, making his debut in 2022. Since then he has become a regular fixture in defence, passing 90 appearances for the club and extending his contract to keep him there into 2027. He has also chipped in with goals from the back, ten in total.

The clearest measure of how far he has come was the 2026 Campeonato Gaúcho final against Internacional, when he scored the winning goal and was named Man of the Match. It capped a run of state-championship success with Grêmio that also included the 2022, 2023 and 2024 titles, plus the Recopa Gaúcha in 2023 and 2025.

At international level, Martins has represented Brazil at Under-23 level, including in the squad that won gold at the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile, where he scored during the group stage.