Arthur Cabral

Arthur Mendonça Cabral (born 25 April 1998) is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Primeira Liga club Benfica.

Ceará
Arthur Cabral, born in Campina Grande, Paraíba, Cabral joined Ceará's youth setup in 2014. He made his first team debut on 22 July 2015, coming on as a late substitute and scoring a last-minute winner in a 2–1 away victory against Tupi, for the year's Copa do Brasil.

In October 2015, Cabral was loaned to Palmeiras and returned to the youth setup. Back to Ceará in the following year, he spent some time in the under-20 squad before being definitely promoted to the first team in the 2017 season.

Cabral contributed with four goals in 16 matches during the 2017 Campeonato Brasileiro Série B, as his side achieved promotion to Série A. On 7 March 2018, he scored a brace in a 3–0 Campeonato Cearense away win against Ferroviário-CE.

Palmeiras
On 30 November 2018, Palmeiras officially signed Cabral for R$ 5,000,000 from Ceará. Here, he played three league matches, scoring one goal.

Basel
On 30 September 2019, Cabral was loaned to FC Basel in the Swiss Super League for their 2019–20 season under manager Marcel Koller. He made his team debut in the Swiss Cup match on 15 September in the away game against lower tier FC Meyrin being substituted in after 74 minutes as Basel won 3–0 to progress to the next round. He played his first game in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League group stage on 19 September as Basel won 5–0 at home in the St. Jakob-Park against Russian team Krasnodar. He then made his domestic league debut on 22 September as Basel played a 1–1 draw with Young Boys in the Stadion Wankdorf. Cabral scored his first goal for his new club in the next league match one week later, on 25 September, as Basel won 4–0 at home against Zürich. During his next match just four days later, on 29 September, he scored two goals as Basel won 3–0 against Luzern.

On 29 June 2020, the club announced that Cabral, whose loan had come to the end, was signed permanently. He scored his first hat-trick for his club on 8 August 2021 against Servette, in fact he scored four goals as Basel won 5–1. He scored his first hat-trick at international level just two weeks later, on 19 August, in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League play-off match as Basel won 3–1 at home against Swedish club Hammarby IF.

FCB announced on 29 January 2022 that their top-scorer Cabral had transferred out to Fiorentina. In his two and a half years with the club Cabral had a total of 118 appearances for Basel scoring a total of 75 goals. 77 of these games were in the Super League, 3 in the Swiss Cup, 26 in the European competitions and 12 were test matches. He scored 46 goals in the domestic league, 2 in the cup, 17 in the European competitions and the other 10 were scored during the tests.

Fiorentina
On 29 January 2022, Cabral joined Serie A side Fiorentina. He scored his first goal on 26 February 2022, in a 2–1 defeat against Sassuolo.

In the 2022–23 edition of the UEFA Conference League, Cabral finished as the top scorer of the competition, alongside Basel's Zeki Amdouni, with 7 goals. Fiorentina reached the tournament's final, where they lost 2–1 to West Ham United. He also finished that season as the top scorer of his club in all competitions with 17 goals.

Benfica
On 10 August 2023, Primeira Liga club Benfica announced the signing of Cabral on a five-year contract, for a reported fee of €20 million + €5 million in add-ons. The striker's release clause was set at €100 million.

Nine days later, Cabral made his debut for the Lisbon-based club, starting in a league match at home to Estrela da Amadora; with the game tied 0–0, Cabral was replaced in the 78th minute by Casper Tengstedt, who scored the opener just one minute later; Benfica went on to win by 2–0. Cabral made his UEFA Champions League debut on 3 October 2023, coming on as a substitute in the 79th minute of a 1–0 loss away at Inter Milan, in the competition's group stage. Cabral scored his first goal for Benfica on 20 October, in a 4–1 victory away at Campeonato de Portugal (Portuguese 4th division) side Lusitânia, in the 3rd round of the Taça de Portugal. Eleven days later, he came on as a second-half substitute and scored in a 2–0 victory away at Arouca, in the group stage of the Taça da Liga.

On 8 December, after a 1–1 league draw to Farense at the Estádio da Luz, Cabral was filmed showing his middle finger to Benfica fans while driving out of the stadium. He apologized the following day. Four days after the incident, in Benfica's last Champions League group stage match, away at Red Bull Salzburg, Cabral came off the bench during the injury time period and, one minute later, scored an essential back-heel goal to seal a 3–1 victory which qualified the Eagles to the UEFA Europa League knock-out round play-offs. On 29 December 2023, Cabral scored his first Primeira Liga goal, the opener in a 3–0 home victory over Famalicão. A month later, he scored a bicycle kick goal in a 4–1 league victory away at Estrela da Amadora.

Youth
Cabral has represented Brazil at the U-23 level, playing in two friendly matches against Colombia and Chile in September 2019.

Senior
In October 2021, Cabral received his first call-up to the Brazilian senior team for 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification matches as an injury replacement for Matheus Cunha.

Honours
Ceará
 * Campeonato Cearense: 2017, 2018

Fiorentina
 * Coppa Italia runner-up: 2022–23
 * UEFA Europa Conference League runner-up: 2022–23

Individual
 * Swiss Super League Player of the Year: 2020–21
 * Swiss Super League Team of the Year: 2020–21, 2021–22
 * UEFA Europa Conference League top scorer: 2022–23