França (footballer, born 1976)

For other uses, see Franca (disambiguation).

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Sena and the second or paternal family name is de Souza.

França

Personal information
Full name	Françoaldo Sena de Souza
Date of birth	(1976-03-02) 2 March 1976
Place of birth	Codó, Brazil
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1993	Nacional
1994–1995	XV Jaú
1996–2002	São Paulo	161	(99)
2002–2005	Bayer Leverkusen	71	(21)
2005–2010	Kashiwa Reysol	102	(29)
2011	Yokohama	9	(1)
International career
2000–2002	Brazil	8	(1)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Françoaldo Sena de Souza (born 2 March 1976), commonly known as França, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a striker.

Club career

França was born in Codó, Maranhão. After his senior beginnings with lowly Nacional Futebol Clube and Esporte Clube XV de Novembro (Jaú), he moved in 1996 to national powerhouse São Paulo FC, where he proceeded to net eight goals overall in his debut year – even though he did not start regularly – and 182 goals in 323 games during his six-year stay (fourth all-time at the time of his departure); in 1998 and 2000, as the club won the Campeonato Paulista, the player was crowned the league's best scorer, respectively at 12 and 18.

In the 2002 summer, França signed with Bayer 04 Leverkusen from Germany as the team sought replacements for aging Ulf Kirsten (37). In his debut season in the Bundesliga he appeared scarcely, barred by Dimitar Berbatov and Oliver Neuville, netting only once, in his league debut in a 2–4 home loss against VfL Bochum;

In 2003–04, although the pair remained at the BayArena, França received much more playing time, and finished just two goals short of the Bulgarian (14 to 16, in as many matches), adding to this a league-best 13 assists. Additionally, Neuville left the following summer.

França moved to Japan subsequently, joining Kashiwa Reysol, experiencing one relegation and one promotion in his first two years and leaving the club in 2010, aged 34.

International career

França collected eight caps for Brazil during two years, but was never selected to any major tournament. He scored once for the national team; his only goal coming in a friendly against England in May 2000.

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			State League		National cup		League cup		Continental		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
São Paulo	1996	Série A	8	1	18	8	2	0	–		6	0	34	9
	1997		15	3	2	2	3	0	22	2	3	2	45	9
	1998		22	7	9	12	4	1	11	1	6	2	52	23
	1999		22	12	3	5	3	2	1	1	6	4	35	24
	2000		16	8	11	18	9	5	3	5	–		54	40
	2001		25	13	10	10	6	8	12	11	6	3	65	45
	2002		–		–		7	5	11	19	–		18	24
	Total		108	44	53	55	34	21	60	39	27	11	282	174
Bayer Leverkusen	2002–03	Bundesliga	16	1	–		4	2	1	0	8	2	29	5
	2003–04		33	14	–		2	0	–		–		35	14
	2004–05		22	6	–		1	2	2	0	7	6	32	14
	2005–06		–		–		–		1	0	–		1	0
	Total		71	21	0	0	7	4	4	0	15	8	97	33
Kashiwa Reysol	2005	J1 League	3	0	–		1	0	0	0	–		4	0
	2006	J2 League	28	4	–		0	0	–		–		28	4
	2007	J1 League	25	8	–		0	0	1	0	–		26	8
	2008		19	4	–		4	2	2	1	–		25	7
	2009		23	10	–		1	0	1	0	–		25	10
	2010	J2 League	4	3	–		–		–		–		4	3
	Total		102	29	0	0	6	2	4	1	0	0	112	32
Career total			281	94	53	55	47	27	68	40	42	19	491	235

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Brazil	2000	6	1
	2001	0	0
	2002	2	0
Total		8	1

Honours

São Paulo

• Campeonato Paulista: 1998, 2000
• Torneio Rio – São Paulo: 2001
• Copa Master de CONMEBOL: 1996

Kashiwa Reysol

• J.League Division 2: 2010

External links

• França at fussballdaten.de (in German)
• França at National-Football-Teams.com
• França at J.League (archive) (in Japanese)