Antonio Naelson Matías (born May 23, 1976), also known simply as Sinha, is a naturalized Mexican football midfielder, who plays for Club Toluca in the Mexican First Division.

[edit] Biography

Sinha was born in Itajá, a city located in the southwest of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte. He began his career playing for Rio Grande do Norte's capital city team America RN.

Sinha measures 163 cm (5 ft 4 in) and weighs 67 kg (147 lb). He was part of the Mexican 2004 Olympic football team, who exited in the first round, having finished third in group A, below group winners Mali and South Korea.

He has also been called up to play for Mexico, although he is a Brazilian-born player, he became a naturalized Mexican citizen, after settling in Mexico for several years. During the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Sinha became the first foreign-born player to score a goal for Mexico in a World Cup tournament, scoring against Iran. He was called up to play again for Mexico, thus making him the first naturalized to be called up by Hugo Sánchez.

In 2005, he played in the Confederations Cup scoring a spectacular goal against Japan that helped Mexico win the match. Mexico finished in fourth place in the tournament. He was also called up for the national team to play in the Gold Cup.

[edit] Honours

Club Toluca

• Primera División de México Championship: 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008
• CONCACAF Champions Cup: 2003
• Champions of Champions: 2003, 2006

[edit] International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	October 13, 2004	Estadio Cuauhtémoc, Puebla, Mexico	Trinidad and Tobago	3–0	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
2.	March 27, 2005	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	United States	2–1	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
3.	June 4, 2005	Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City, Guatemala	Guatemala	2–0	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
4.	June 16, 2005	AWD-Arena, Hanover, Germany	Japan	2–1	Win	2005 FIFA Confederations Cup
5.	June 11, 2006	Frankenstadion, Nuremberg, Germany	Iran	3–1	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup
6.	June 4, 2008	Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, United States	Argentina	1–4	Loss	Friendly

[edit] External links

• Antonio Naelson Article (In Spanish)
• Football Database.com provides Antonio Naelson's profile and stats
• Antônio Naelson stats at MedioTiempo.com (Spanish)

Mexico squads v • d • e Mexico squad – 2004 Summer Olympics 1 Corona • 2 F. Rodríguez • 3 M. Pérez • 4 I. Rodríguez • 5 López • 6 Galindo • 7 Sinha • 8 Martínez • 9 Bravo • 10 L. Pérez • 11 Márquez Lugo • 12 Pineda • 13 Ponce • 14 García • 15 Sánchez • 16 Íñiguez • 17 Espinoza • 18 Ochoa • Coach: Lavolpe v • d • e Mexico squad – 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup Fourth Place 1 Sánchez • 2 Galindo • 3 Salcido • 4 Márquez • 5 Osorio • 6 Torrado • 7 Sinha • 8 Pardo • 9 Borgetti • 10 Bravo • 11 Morales • 12 Muñoz • 13 Márquez Lugo • 14 Pineda • 15 Sánchez Guerrero • 16 Méndez • 17 Fonseca • 18 Carmona • 19 Medina • 20 Rodríguez • 21 Lozano • 22 Pérez • 23 Corona • Coach: Lavolpe v • d • e Mexico squad – 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup 1 Muñoz • 2 Rodríguez • 3 Salcido • 4 Osorio • 5 López • 6  • 7 Sinha • 8 R.García • 9 Borgetti • 10 Bravo • 11 Osorno • 12 Corona • 14 Pineda • 15 Morales • 16 Méndez • 17 Márquez Lugo • 18 Padilla • 19 Medina • 20 J.García • 21 Galindo • 22 Altamirano • 23 Pérez • Coach: Lavolpe v • d • e Mexico squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Sánchez • 2 Suárez • 3 Salcido • 4 Márquez • 5 Osorio • 6 Torrado • 7 Sinha • 8 Pardo • 9 Borgetti • 10 Franco • 11 Morales • 12 Corona • 13 Ochoa • 14 Pineda • 15 Castro • 16 Méndez • 17 Fonseca • 18 Guardado • 19 Bravo • 20 García • 21 Arellano • 22 Rodríguez • 23 Pérez • Coach: Lavolpe

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