Kannemann picks Jô as the toughest striker he's ever faced | OneFootball

Grêmio center-back Walter Kannemann named Jô, one of the greatest number 9s in the history of Corinthians, as the toughest striker he faced in his entire career in Brazilian football. In an interview with the 4D TV channel, the Argentine highlighted the player’s qualities—who at the time was playing for Timão—and the difficulties the goalscorer created in the matchups they had.

“I’ve marked several strikers, but Jô [was the toughest in Brazil]. For me, he was deceptively slow. He held up the ball well and used his body well. I would step out to mark him, and he would drift wide—he never stayed still. When he was up for the game, you had to go in hard on him, but he was strong too, and he was tall,” he said.

Marcos Ribolli

Career at Corinthians

Jô played 284 official matches for Corinthians and scored 65 goals, spread across three notable spells. A product of the club’s youth academy, the striker made history in 2003 by becoming the youngest player ever to debut for the senior team, at just 16 years old. In that first stint, which lasted until the end of 2005, he took the field 115 times, found the net on 18 occasions, and was part of the squad that won the 2005 Brazilian Championship before being sold to Russian football.

The peak of his journey with Alvinegro came in 2017, upon his return to Brazilian football. Jô was the standout star of the team managed by Fábio Carille, scoring 25 goals in 64 matches that season. Under his technical leadership, Corinthians won the Campeonato Paulista and their seventh Brazilian league title, a competition in which the center-forward was named the best player and finished as the outright top scorer with 18 goals. His third and final spell began in 2020, shortly after leaving Japanese football.

Despite dealing with physical ups and downs and criticism from the fans, Jô added another 22 goals in 105 matches over two years. He ended his time at the club in June 2022 after an amicable contract termination, leaving Corinthians as the club’s all-time top scorer in the Brazilian Championship in the round-robin era.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.