The Brazilian known simply as Fabinho
agreed a deal to join Liverpool within days of the Champions League final defeat in
Kiev in May 2018, providing a boost to disappointed fans. Fabinho was born in Sao Paulo in 1993, but his first professional club was Rio side Fluminese. He left there for Rio Ave Portugal in June 2012 without making a first-team appearance. However, after just a month in northern Portugal, he was loaned to Real Madrid's reserve side Castilla for 2012/13 and made and towards the end of the season even made an appearance for the Spanish giants in La Liga.
A loan deal was then agreed for Fabinho to join Monaco for the 2013-14 season and this was then extended for him to say here in 2014-15. This moved was then made permanent in 2015 and he signed a four-year deal. That same summer he was selected for the Brazilian national side for the first time and named in their Copa America squad. A defensive midfielder who can play in either full-back position, Fabinho's versatility was a factor in Jürgen Klopp's decision to sign him with Emre Can's contract expiring in June 2018. Despite not being an attacking player, he scored an impressive 23 goals in 167 Ligue 1 appearances for Monaco over five years. He
agreed terms on 28 May 2018 and became a Liverpool player on 1 July. Coming to terms with Klopp's intense fitness and training methods, Fabinho had to be patient and didn't feature at all until coming on as an injury-time substitute against Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League on 18 September. The following week he made his first start in a League Cup tie against Chelsea. Although he had to wait for his chance, by the end of the season Fabinho had arguably established himself as the first midfield name on Klopp's
teamsheet.
After making his first league start at Huddersfield on 19 October Fabinho featured in all except two of the remaining 29 games, scoring his first goal for the club in a 4-0 win over Newcastle on Boxing Day. Able to dominate the midfield, his ability to intercept and make a simple pass to a teammate that could drive the team forward was a key factor in Liverpool's near-miss in the title race and European triumph. His versatility was also such that when Virgil Van Dijk was suspended against Bayern Munich in the Champions League knockout stage, Fabinho was selected to fill in at centre-back. When the season ended, eyebrows were raised that he wasn't part of Brazil's Copa America squad alongside compatriots Alisson and Robert Firmino.
Fabinho continued to impress in Liverpool's engine room in the 2019/20 campaign and also absolutely belted in two long-range shots; in the crucial clash with Manchester City at Anfield where he bossed the midfield and in the 4-0 win over Crystal Palace, the day before Chelsea's guaranteed the title for the Reds by beating City 2-1. Klopp was pleased with his progress: "He plays like he played at Monaco, but he needed time to adapt. A really smart footballer and full of quality. These things are difficult to learn. It's about all his game intelligence. It helps all of us." During 2020/21 Fabinho had to play a number of games at centre back due to injuries in that department. He was sidelined with a muscle injury in February but it is telling that his return to his favoured defensive midfield position towards the end of the season coincided with Liverpool finishing strongly to qualify for the Champions League.
2021/22 was a solid season for Fabinho, in which he found the net eight times including on three successive weekends in January. He missed the FA Cup final trough injury but did feature in the Champions League final, in which the Reds lost 1-0 to Real Madrid in Paris. During 2022/23 Fabinho featured 36 times in the Premier League, his highest total yet in a season that the Reds didn't hit the heights of the last few years. He was criticised on occasions but as the team's form improved towards the end of the season he was back to his usual solidity in midfield as they were unbeaten in their final nine games. He also featured for Brazil in the World Cup in Qatar. Fabinho was sold to Saudi Arabia's Al-Ittihad in the summer of 2023.