Cleone Santos Silva

Cléo Silva's career has run through the lower and middle tiers of Brazilian football for well over a decade, built almost entirely on loan spells away from a single parent club. He began at Rio Preto before joining Novorizontino in 2014, and it was there that he stayed on the books the longest, even as he spent most of that stretch out on loan: Itumbiara, Parauapebas, Boa Esporte, Cuiabá, Joinville, Botafogo-SP, Luverdense, São Bento and Operário Ferroviário all had him for spells before he returned each time to Novorizontino.

By the time those loans stopped, in 2019, he settled back into the squad and became a more regular contributor in front of goal. Between 2019 and 2022 he scored at least six times for the club, three of them in the Série C in 2021, a season that also brought him the Troféu do Interior in the Campeonato Paulista. Across his time at Novorizontino he made around 180 appearances in total, with roughly 22 of those coming in the 2022/2023 season alone.

Since leaving Novorizontino, his path has taken him further afield and moved more quickly: a season at Brusque in 2023, a spell in Iraq with Zakho, then a run of free transfers back in Brazil through Santo André and Náutico before a move to CRAC at the start of 2025. He joined Barra in April 2025.

He has not been capped by Brazil at senior level. A right-footed forward capable of playing on either flank, he has instead built a career defined by volume and adaptability, moving from loan to loan and club to club without ever settling for long — until that extended run at Novorizontino gave him the platform to finally score with regularity.