Matchday 4 - Player of the Round

Nilmar (Villarreal)

Nilmar signed for Villarreal from Internacional in the summer of 2009 and the former Lyon forward had a mixed first season here in Spain. The Brazilian was competing for places with Joseba Llorente and Giuseppe Rossi and a poor year for the club on the whole did not help the Brazilian's reputation. There have been ups and downs for Nilmar in his career. He moved to Europe to join Lyon at a very young age and, despite some success, he failed to settle and eventually moved back to his homeland. Not many players would have been given a second chance but the Bandeirantes-born forward obviously had the talent to succeed in Europe so Villarreal took a gamble on him last year and their investment is starting to pay dividends. Former Brazil manager Dunga kept faith with Nilmar during his tenure as national coach, calling him up to play at the World Cup ahead of some big names like Ronaldinho, Neymar and Alexandre Pato. Now we are starting to see why as the Villarreal striker has got off to an excellent start to the 2010-11 season. On Thursday night, Nilmar ran the show and scored the only goal as the Yellow Submarine inflicted a 1-0 defeat on Deportivo La Coruna at the Madrigal. With four goals already, Nilmar currently heads the Pichichi charts and, if he continues in this vein, he could still be in contention come the end of the season.