Willian Gerlem

Early career

Gerlem was born on 7 August 1984 in Linhares, Espírito Santo, Brazil. On 15 June 2003, he made his Série A debut, appearing for Bahia when coach Evaristo sent him at half-time in a 2–1 home win over Vitória. In 2005 he went to play in the Portuguese second league for Estoril where in his first season he scored seven goals in 20 matches, demonstrating an appetite for scoring. In the middle of the following season, Gerlem had to leave the team after having a conflict with the coach.

Farul Constanța

In 2007, Farul Constanța paid €100,000 to Estoril to transfer Gerlem. He made his Liga I debut on 14 April 2007 when coach Basarab Panduru sent him in the 68th minute to replace Cosmin Băcilă in a 2–1 home loss to Rapid București. He scored his first goal in the league on 13 May, as he sealed a 2–0 win over Politehnica Iași. In the following season on 21 September 2007, Gerlem received a red card in a game against Pandurii Târgu Jiu because of an altercation with Constant Djakpa, after which he got in a verbal conflict with one of the assistant referees, for which he received an eight-match ban. After the ban, he scored three goals in three victories against Universitatea Craiova, Vaslui and Dacia Mioveni until the end of the season. In the first half of the 2008–09 season he scored a goal in a loss to "U" Craiova, the only goal in a win over Vaslui with a spectacular shot from outside the penalty box, and was named Farul's footballer of the year in…