Ricardo Goulart

Santo André

Born in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Goulart joined Santo André's youth setup in 2006, after failed trials at São Paulo, São Caetano, Taubaté and Paulista. In the 2009 season, after being the under-20's top scorer in the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior, he was then promoted to the first team. Goulart made his first team debut for Ramalhão on 25 February 2009, coming on as a second-half substitute and scoring the equalizer in a 2–1 Campeonato Paulista home win over Ituano. He scored four times in 12 appearances in the competition, as the club finished sixth. Goulart made his Série A debut on 24 May 2009, replacing Antônio Flávio in a 1–2 home loss against Flamengo. He scored his first goal in the category on 25 July, but in a 2–3 loss at Grêmio, and featured sparingly in the league as his side suffered relegation.

Loan to Internacional

On 19 May 2010, Goulart was loaned to Internacional for one year, and was initially assigned to the B-team. After winning the 2010 Copa FGF with the B's, Goulart was included in the main squad ahead of the 2011 campaign, and started the season as a starter. However, after the arrival of Dorival Júnior as manager, he lost space in the main squad and returned to his parent club when his loan expired in December 2011; Santo André also refused to keep him, and he was subsequently released.

Goiás

On 28 December 2011, Goulart agreed to a contract with Série B Goiás for the ensuing campaign. He made his…

On 19 August 2014, Goulart was called up to the Brazil national team for two matches against Colombia and Ecuador by new manager Dunga. After being an unused substitute against the former, he made his full international debut on 9 September, in a 1–0 victory against the latter. Having only played a friendly match for Brazil, Goulart was subsequently naturalized as a Chinese citizen, being one of the six football players at the time who had no Chinese ancestry to have been naturalized as Chinese citizens, with another notable player being Elkeson, another former Brazilian. However, it became unclear whether he would be able to represent the national team, as he did not complete the five-year residency rules after leaving the country between October 2018 and May 2019.

Goulart plays primarily as an attacking midfielder and is also capable of playing as forward through the centre or as a winger on either flank . He has also been noted for his ball striking and attacking runs into the area

In 2009, Goulart married Diane. His brother Juninho is also a footballer, best known for his tenure with MLS club LA Galaxy. Goulart became a naturalised Chinese citizen on 17 July 2019. After leaving Guangzhou in November 2021, Chinese media reported that he gave up on his Chinese nationality as he returned to Brazil, but he was still registered as a foreigner in the 2022 season, as he did not start the documentation process to get back his Brazilian nationality.