Christian

The move that took Christian out of Brazil came with a price tag: on 10 July 2026 FC Krasnodar announced his signing for a fixed $11m, with Cruzeiro keeping 90 per cent of the fee and Athletico Paranaense the remaining tenth. He had spent barely 18 months at Cruzeiro, and left as the club's second-highest scorer over that spell — 12 goals in 63 league matches.

He is a volante by training, right-footed, and has also been used on the right of midfield and as a right winger. After youth spells at Chapecoense and CE União, he joined Athletico Paranaense in 2017 and made his professional debut for them in January 2019 — the same year he was loaned to Juventude.

Athletico became the making of him. He stayed until 2025 and passed 200 appearances across all competitions, scoring 15 goals in 133 of them. The medals arrived quickly: the Copa do Brasil in 2019, the Copa Sudamericana in 2021, and four Campeonato Paranaense titles in 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024.

Cruzeiro paid around €4m to take him to Belo Horizonte in January 2025, with reported bonuses capable of lifting the total. He wore 88 there and won the Campeonato Mineiro in 2026 before the Russian offer arrived. The start in Krasnodar has been brisk enough: two goals from his first six appearances by August 2026.