Player Profile

Aurélio started his career with São Paolo in Brazil in 1997. He joined Valencia in the summer of 2000 after featuring for Brazil's u-23 team in the Sidney Olympics. A certain Rafa Benítez took over as coach of Valencia and Aurélio twice celebrated winning the Spanish championship in 2002 and 2004 as well as winning the UEFA Cup. However, Aurélio didn't make as many appearances as he would have liked because of injuries, only making two appearances in the successful 2003/04 season after starring for Valencia on the left flank in the previous season, playing 35 games and scoring ten goals. Aurélio's injuries, unfortunately, did not desert him when he arrived at Liverpool. Just when he had started to hit peak form he ruptured his Achilles against PSV Eindhoven in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final in the 2006/07 season. Thirteen of his 29 appearances in 2007/08 came in cup matches and Benítez seemed particularly keen to use him in the Champions League. Aurélio had his best season at Liverpool in the 2008/09 season, making 27 starts and making five substitute appearances despite being six weeks on the sidelines with injury from November through January. He showed quick thinking when he scored from a wonderful free-kick at Chelsea in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final. His goal even earned a celebration from Rafa Benítez on the touchline! He also scored from a free-kick which was the highlight of Liverpool's tremendous 4-1 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford. Aurélio seemed to have finally nailed a regular spot in the Liverpool line-up, but injured his knee in a freak accident playing with his son in the garden in the summer.

The 2009/10 season was, on the whole, a disappointment for the Brazilian who celebrated his thirtieth birthday a month after the season started having just recovered from his freak injury. Aurélio had little else to celebrate, making just 14 League and nine cup appearances with Emiliano Insúa establishing himself as first-choice left-back. Even the sale of Andrea Dossena to Napoli in January 2010 did not significantly improve Aurélio's chances of regular first-team football because the manager, who had a surfeit of central defenders to try and keep happy, used Daniel Agger as his left-back on occasion. Aurélio injured his thigh against Blackburn Rovers on 28 February which ended his season. Aurélio's contract was due to run out in the summer of 2010 and Liverpool were only ready to offer him a pay-as-you-play deal. He wanted more security and left Liverpool when his contract expired.

Before the 2010/11 League season began, Aurélio re-signed for Liverpool on a two-year deal. New manager Roy Hodgson recognised that left-back was a position he needed to fill adequately and offered the Brazilian a second chance. The chances of poor Aurélio getting through an entire season without being injured were pretty slim, and so it proved. He picked up an Achilles injury and after he had recovered Hodgson used him sparingly but he was more of a regular after Dalglish succeeded the Englishman. But when picked to start at the Emirates in the middle of April, Aurélio got a hamstring injury and had to be substituted for Jack Robinson with less than a third of the match played. Dalglish picked him to start in the final League match of the season away to Aston Villa and amazingly the Brazilian got through the whole match unscathed! Aurélio only played in three first-team matches in 2011/12 partly due to the good form of Jose Enrique and partly because of injuries. Only 134 appearances in six seasons show how often he was unavailable for selection. Leaving Liverpool at the age of 32, Aurélio hoped Fortune would smile on him more favourably at Gremio in his native Brazil. However, he has effectively been ruled out for the season after suffering a knee ligament rupture.

Aurelio called time on his playing-career on 4 April 2014 after realising that the many injuries he had received with different clubs would not allow him to continue playing at the age of thirty-four. He has now returned to live in Sao Carlo, his childhood home and is a football agent.