Airton Ribeiro Santos

Early career

Airton started his career at Nova Iguaçu at the age of 13. At the end of 2007, Flamengo's youth coach Adílio asked for his loan. Airton also spent four months on loan at Mesquita in 2007, playing on the youth team.

Flamengo

Airton arrived at Flamengo, on loan, on 7 January 2008 to play for the club's youth team. His rights belonged to, at the time, Nova Iguaçu, which had him under contract until 2010. He would play for Flamengo until the end of 2008, but in 2008, Flamengo officially signed him, acquiring part of his rights — Nova Iguaçu and Traffic, an investors group, shared the other parts of his rights. His first match in the first-team was in a 1–1 draw against Vasco da Gama on 6 April 2008, and his debut in the Brazilian Série A was at Mineirão Stadium, coming off the bench in a 1–1 draw against Atlético Mineiro on 9 July.

Benfica

In December 2009, after much speculation, Benfica signed Airton to a five-year contract. Flamengo received a sum around €1.1 million for 15% of his rights. In Portugal, he acted mainly as a back-up for starter Javi García for the second part of the 2009-10 season. After struggling to perform on the same level in the following season, Airton was loaned to Flamengo.

Return to Brazil

Airton returned to Flamengo from Benfica almost a year and a half after his original loan deal to Flamengo ended, penning a season-long loan deal on 10 June 2011. In May 2012, it was extended until June 2013, but was…

As of 24 December 2014

Flamengo

Campeonato Carioca: 2008, 2009 Brazilian Série A: 2009 Benfica

Primeira Liga: 2009–10 Taça da Liga: 2009–10, 2010–11 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira runner-up: 2010 Internacional

Campeonato Gaúcho: 2013 Individual

Campeonato Carioca Team of the year: 2018