A prolific goalscorer in the Russian Premier League, 21-year-old Brazilian international Jô was an £18million record signing for Manchester City in July 2008. A tall centre forward of grace and skill, he found it difficult to establish himself at a time when Sheikh Mansour’s billions were dramatically shifting the fortunes of the Mancunian underachievers.

THE following January he joined Everton on loan and put in an outstanding debut performance in a 3-0 home rout of Bolton Wanderers. Clearly a confidence player, he impressed in flashes through the remainder of the season, his fine link play and several further goals helping Everton’s rise to fifth. A brief FA Cup appearance as a substitute for City in January meant that he missed out on Everton’s run to the FA Cup Final, but he had nevertheless done enough to convince David Moyes to extend his loan spell by a further year with provisions for a permanent deal if it proved successful.

Alas, this was to end in acrimony. Jô, like the rest of the team, struggled for form in the first half of the 2009/10 season, and the player found himself in and out of the Everton line-up without making much impact. During Christmas he took unauthorised leave to return to Brazil and Moyes terminated the deal.

HE FOUND his way back to Manchester via a loan spell at Galatasaray and in the summer of 2011 returned to South America in an attempt to revive his career with Internacional.