Brazilian Goalie Bruno Who Had Ex-Girlfriend Murdered Signs With Club Boa Esporte

Bruno Fernandes de Souza, a former goalkeeper for Brazil’s Flamengo soccer club, has shocked the sport’s world after signing a two-year deal with second-division club Boa Esporte on Monday.

Brazilian Goalie Bruno, Convicted Murderer, Signs with Boa Esporte

The 32-year-old Brazilian, known as simply Bruno by most of his fans, was released from prison just last month for ordering the 2010 kidnapping, torture, and murder of his ex-girlfriend Eliza Samudio, who was also the mother of his child.

Bruno was sentenced to 22 years in jail in 2013. Samudio’s body was never recovered following her torture and murder after she was held in a shed in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Bruno’s cousin told a court her dismembered body parts were fed to his teammates’ dogs.

The crime has already generated severe controversy in the country amongst soccer fans, players and others who are rightfully fretting at seeing a convicted killer take the field again.

“This is a barbaric crime,” former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said in 2010, according to The Guardian, following Bruno’s arrest. “The whole of Brazil is disgusted by such a barbaric and perverse crime.”

Bruno’s lawyers obtained his release on a habeas corpus after the slow-moving courts failed to act on his appeal. One video allegedly captured the goalie celebrating his release by drinking champagne with friends.

Boa Esporte said it was not responsible for Bruno’s release in a statement:

“Esporte Clube was not responsible for the release and freedom of the athlete Bruno,” Boa Esporte president Rone Moraes da Costa said on Facebook, according to CNN’s Marilia Brocchetto and Shasta Darlington. Da Costa added his club was “giving work to those who intend to recover.” Boa Esporte said in another Facebook post Bruno “deserves a new opportunity as a professional. … The club has no relation with Bruno’s personal actions, nor with his past, having hired only the professional.”

Bruno’s signing with the club has already been met with criticism amongst Brazilian fans and women’s rights groups, who are saying the lack of punishment dealt to a soccer star is a clear sign of the country’s still highly misogynistic culture.