Zé Hugo

Zé Hugo has built his career on loan, rarely settling anywhere for long. Since joining Azuriz around 2022, the forward from João Pessoa has been sent out to Coritiba, Santo André, Vitória, Goiás and Ferroviária, moving through Brazil's football pyramid one temporary contract at a time.

The loan that stands out was at Vitória. There, in 2023, he was part of the squad that won the Campeonato Brasileiro da Série B, playing 34 matches and scoring four goals across that campaign. He stayed at the club into 2024, though the team's top scorer that promotion season was his teammate Wagner Leonardo, not him.

His next loan, to Goiás in January 2025, did not work out in the same way. Playing time dried up, and he left in August of that year without establishing himself, moving straight on to Ferroviária for the rest of the Série B season.

Before any of that, Zé Hugo came up through smaller clubs — Farroupilha, São Gabriel and Nova Mutum — in the early stages of his career, well away from the Série B stage he would later reach with Vitória. He has not been capped by Brazil at any level.