Alexandro Silva de Sousa (born 15 April 1983), known as Dudu Cearense or simply Dudu, is a Brazilian former professional footballer. He is known for his passing, aerial ability and tackling. He was a central midfielder who usually played either in a holding midfield role or as a box-to-box midfielder. Despite often being used in a defensive position, he was mainly an attacking player. He has been capped for the Brazil national team.

Career

Dudu was born in Fortaleza, Ceará. In February 2005, after spending half a season playing for Rennes in France, Dudu transferred to CSKA Moscow, where he joined and played with fellow Brazilians Daniel Carvalho, Vagner Love, and later Jô. In 2007, Dudu expressed his wish to leave CSKA Moscow. Olympiacos tried to sign him, but failed. In 2008, Olympiacos offered the Russian club €6 million. The offer was accepted and the player signed a three-year contract on 6 August 2008. In May 2009, he signed a new contract with the Greek club which would last until June 2013 with a buyout clause of €8.5 million. On 7 April 2011, Olympiacos agreed to sell Dudu Cearense to Atlético Mineiro for a fee of €1.1 million. Dudu signed a three-year contract with the Brazilian team. In 2012 he moved to Goiás until the end of his contract in January 2014. Goiás wanted to extend with the player but he wanted to return to Europe. On 27 January 2014, he agreed a 1.5-year contract with Greek Club OFI. On 5 June 2014, he agreed for a one-year contract worth $245,000 with Maccabi Netanya of the Israel Premier League (biggest contract in the history of the club). Three weeks later, it was reported Dudu was injured and in poor shape. He was released on 22 September. He never played for Netanya in the league and only made two appearances in the Toto Cup. He is considered the biggest flop in the club's history, mainly for the fact he never even played once in the league and the club had to pay $50,000 compensation after his release. On 10 January 2015, he returned to Brazil and agreed to a contract with Fortaleza.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Club

Vitória CSKA Moscow Olympiacos Atlético Mineiro Goiás Fortaleza Botafogo

International

Brazil Brazil U-20

Individual