Ricardo Vilana


Ricardo Gomes Vilana is a retired Brazilian footballer.

Career

Early career

Vilana was born on 18 July 1981 in São Paulo, Brazil and began playing football at local club, Portuguesa. Subsequently, in 2002 he moved to play in the Swiss lower leagues for Malcantone Agno. There, he spent two seasons, helping the team gain promotion from the third to the second league during his first season. After his daughter was born, Vilana decided to stop playing football and instead played futsal.

Unirea Urziceni

He returned to playing football about two years later, being convinced to sign with Romanian club Unirea Urziceni by his brother-in-law, Alex Leandro, who was playing there. Vilana made his Liga I debut on 10 September 2006 when coach Costel Orac sent him to replace Alexandru Pojer in the 85th minute of a 2–0 home win over Național București. The club reached the 2008 Cupa României final and he played the entire match under coach Dan Petrescu in the 2–1 loss to CFR Cluj. Subsequently, Vilana helped the club win the 2008–09 title, as coach Petrescu used him in 20 games, scoring once in a 2–0 away victory against Politehnica Iași.
He started the following season by replacing Sorin Paraschiv in the 81st minute of the penalty shoot-out loss to CFR Cluj in the 2009 Supercupa României. Afterwards, Vilana made five appearances in the 2009–10 Champions League group stage, playing against VfB Stuttgart, Sevilla and Rangers, as the team earned eight points and finished third. Thus they qualified to the round of 32 of the Europa League where he played in both legs of the 4–1 aggregate loss to Liverpool.

Steaua București

In August 2010, Vilana signed a contract with Steaua București alongside teammates from Unirea Urziceni: Galamaz, Marinescu, Apostol, Bilașco, Onofraș and Brandán.
First he was sent by coach Ilie Dumitrescu to play in Liga II for the team's satellite club, Steaua II București, making his debut against Juventus București, which the team won 1–0 with his goal. Afterwards he started to play for the first team, including making five appearances in the 2010–11 Europa League group stage against Liverpool, Napoli and Utrecht, but failing to qualify further as they finished third. The team won the Cupa României, but Vilana did not get to play in the final, as he and fellow Brazilian Éder Bonfim terminated their contracts on mutual agreement with the club on 4 May 2011.

Khazar Lankaran

Vilana and Bonfim went together to play for Khazar Lankaran in Azerbaijan, being brought there by Romanian coach, Mircea Rednic. He left the club after about one year in which the team finished runner-up in the 2011–12 season, and also made appearances in qualification rounds of the Europa League.

Late career

In 2013, Vilana signed a contract with FC Andorra in the Spanish fifth league. He subsequently returned to Brazil, playing for Guaratinguetá in Série C and joining Série A club Coritiba in 2016, though he did not feature in any matches there.

Honours

Malcantone Agno
Unirea Urziceni
Steaua București