Matheus Leite Nascimento, known simply as Matheus, is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Chinese club Shijiazhuang Ever Bright F.C. as a forward. He spent most of his professional career in Portugal with Braga and in Ukraine with Dnipro, appearing in 154 competitive games with the second club.
Club career
Early years / Braga
Matheus was born in Ribeirópolis, Sergipe. After starting professionally with lowly Associação Olímpica de Itabaiana, he moved to Portugal in the summer of 2005, with second division team F.C. Marco. In January of the following year, however, he was bought by Primeira Liga's S.C. Braga, making four appearances in his first season. During the year 2007, encompassing both the 2006–07 and 2007–08 campaigns, Matheus served two loans: in January 2007 he joined S.C. Beira-Mar, appearing from August–December with Vitória de Setúbal and being subsequently recalled by his parent club. In 2009–10, Matheus appeared in all 30 league matches – but rarely as a starter – as Braga finished in a best-ever second place behind S.L. Benfica. He contributed with five goals, in 1,142 minutes of action. Matheus started the following season with major contributions: on 28 July, he scored from a 35-meter free kick to close the score against Celtic, as his team progressed to the next UEFA Champions League qualifying round. On 13 August, in the league opener against Portimonense SC, he started and opened the scoring in an eventual 3–1 home win; five days later, again for the Champions League, he scored the game's only goal in a home victory over Sevilla FC– in celebrating the goal, he pulled out a pacifier and put it in his mouth– and netted the first in the second leg in Andalusia, in a 4–3 win.
Dnipro
On 23 November 2010, Matheus scored twice in the dying minutes of the 2–0 Champions League home defeat of Arsenal, although Braga would eventually fail to reach the knockout stages of the competition, finishing third in their group. In January 2011, the 28-year-old left and signed for FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine, for €1 million. Matheus finished his first full season at Dnipro with seven goals from 23 appearances, helping his team to the fourth position. On 15 April 2014, he netted four goals in their 5–1 home win against FC Volyn Lutsk. During the 2015 UEFA Europa League Final in Warsaw, Matheus collapsed on the field of play with nobody around him in the late stages of the team's 2–3 loss to Sevilla. Manager Myron Markevych confirmed that he had been treated at hospital for a nasal fracture and a head injury, being discharged in good health hours later to reunite with his teammates.
In March 2013, after more than two years of living in the country, Matheus indicated that he would be likely to accept a call-up for the Ukrainian national team if asked.
