Walter Kannemann hails ex-Corinthians striker Jô and recalls toughest battles | OneFootball

Grêmio centre-back Walter Kannemann has described former Corinthians striker Jô as the toughest forward he faced in Brazilian football. The Argentine arrived in the country in the same year as Jô and remains with the Porto Alegre club.

"I have marked many forwards, but Jô was the hardest. For me he was deceptively slow. He held the ball well and used his body well. I stepped out to mark, he drifted to the side, he never kept still. When he wanted to play you had to go in strong on him, but he was strong too and he was tall," he told 4D TV.

Jô was among Brazil's leading forwards in the previous decade and had three spells with Corinthians. His standout stint came in 2016 and 2017, when he won the Paulista Championship and the Brasileirão, scored 18 goals and became the club's first top scorer of the national league.

Beyond their 2017 meetings, Kannemann faced Jô again during the striker's third spell at Parque São Jorge, from June 2020 to June 2022. Across five encounters, Corinthians won two and three were drawn. Jô scored once, settling the match in August 2021 at the Arena do Grêmio.

In total, Jô played 284 games for Corinthians and scored 65 goals, 30 of them at the Neo Química Arena. That tally makes him the stadium's fourth highest scorer, behind Roger Guedes, Romero and Yuri Alberto.

Source: Meu Timao