Junior Messias

Junior Walter Messias (born 13 May 1991) is a Brazilian football player. He plays in Italy for Crotone.

This name uses Portuguese naming customs: the first or maternal family name is Walter and the second or paternal family name is Messias.
Junior Messias
Personal information
Full name Junior Walter Messias
Date of birth (1991-05-13) 13 May 1991
Place of birth Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Height 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Forward
Club information
Current team
 Crotone
Number 30
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2015–2016 Casale (21)
2016–2017 Chieri 33 (14)
2017– Gozzano 38 (7)
2019– Crotone 50 (11)
2019 → Gozzano (loan) 14 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 15:54, 10 January 2021 (UTC)

Club career

He started his senior career in the lower-tier, non-professional Italian divisions,[1] being discovered by former Torino player and manager Ezio Rossi, who persuaded him to join Casale in 2015.[2]

At the end of the 2017–18 season his team Gozzano was promoted to Serie C.

He made his professional Serie C debut for Gozzano on 23 September 2018 in a game against Cuneo. He started the game and played the whole match.[3] He scored his first professional-level goal on 26 September 2018 against Piacenza.

On 31 January 2019 his rights were sold to Serie B club Crotone, who loaned him back to Gozzano until the end of the 2018–19 season.[4] He finished his first professional-level season with 33 appearances (32 as a starter) and 4 goals.

He made his Serie B debut for Crotone on 24 August 2019 in a game against Cosenza. He started the game and played the whole match.[5] He was instrumental in Crotone's promotion to the Italian top flight (the second in the club history) by scoring six goals throughout the season, and was confirmed as part of the team squad for the 2020–21 Serie A campaign.

He scored his first Serie A goal on 25 October 2020 against Cagliari, followed by two braces in December against Spezia and Parma.

Personal life

A Brazilian by birth, Messias moved to Italy in 2011 together with his wife and son, joining his brother in Turin, where he started working in the delivery sector and playing football for an amateur team of the local Peruvian community on his free time.[2]

References
  1. Junior Messias at TuttoCalciatori.net (in Italian)
  2. "Junior Messias, dallo sbarco in Italia in cerca di lavoro alla Serie A nel Crotone" (in Italian). LACNews24. 18 November 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  3. "Cuneo v Gozzano game report". Soccerway. 23 September 2018.
  4. "Comunicato 04/2019" (Press release) (in Italian). Gozzano. 31 January 2019.
  5. "Crotone v Cosenza game report". Soccerway.
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