On 31 July 2016, Real Sociedad signed Willian José da Silva on a permanent deal. The centre-forward had just spent a season on loan at Las Palmas. The move ended a long run of loans and kept the Brazilian in the Spanish top flight for six years. He was born on 23 November 1991 in Porto Calvo, in the state of Alagoas. He stands 1.89 metres tall and is right-footed. After spells with Real Madrid Castilla, Real Zaragoza, Las Palmas, Real Sociedad, Wolverhampton, Real Betis and Spartak Moscow, he has played for Bahia since January 2025.
He came through the youth ranks at CRB in Alagoas and then at Grêmio Barueri, the São Paulo state club where he turned professional. His Brazilian Série A debut came on 1 August 2009, as a substitute in a 2-1 defeat to Botafogo. Between 2009 and 2010 he played 26 Série A games for Barueri and scored six goals. From 2011 his economic rights belonged to Uruguay’s Deportivo Maldonado. The club never fielded him and loaned him out to other teams until 2016.
São Paulo, Grêmio and Santos
In January 2011 São Paulo took him on a two-year loan. In 2013 he played for Grêmio, scoring three goals in nine matches. Later that year he joined Santos, where he played 23 Brasileirão games and scored five goals.
Castilla, Zaragoza and Las Palmas
In January 2014 he joined Real Madrid Castilla on loan. Madrid’s reserve side were then in the Spanish second division, and he scored four goals in 16 games. On 11 May 2014 he made his first-team debut in a 2-0 league defeat away to Celta Vigo. He spent the 2014-15 season on loan at Real Zaragoza, also in the second tier, and finished with ten goals in all competitions. In 2015 he moved to Las Palmas, who had just been promoted. He scored his first top-flight goal on 12 December 2015, against Real Betis, and ended the season with nine goals in 30 league games.
Six seasons at Real Sociedad
He made his Real Sociedad debut on 21 August 2016, against Real Madrid. A month later, on 21 September, he scored twice in a 4-1 win over his former club Las Palmas. He finished 2016-17 as the team’s top league scorer with 12 goals, and Real Sociedad came sixth. The 2017-18 season was his most prolific in San Sebastián: 15 league goals and five in six Europa League matches, 20 in all. He scored 11 in each of the next two seasons. He played four games in the 2019-20 Copa del Rey. The pandemic pushed the final back to April 2021, by which time he was in England, and Real Sociedad beat Athletic Club to win it. According to the club’s archive, he made 170 appearances and scored 62 goals for the Basque side.
Wolverhampton and Real Betis
On 23 January 2021 he joined Wolverhampton on loan until the end of the season, with a purchase option that the English club did not take up. He played 17 Premier League games and scored once. Back in Spain, he joined Real Betis on loan on 26 August 2021 and made his debut against Granada on 13 September. On 23 April 2022 Betis met Valencia in the Copa del Rey final at La Cartuja. After a 1-1 draw the final went to penalties. Willian José scored his kick, and Betis won the shootout 5-4 to lift the 2022 Copa del Rey. In June 2022 Betis made the move permanent, and he stayed in Seville until 2024.
Brazil youth teams
Ney Franco called him up to the Brazil under-20 side in November 2010. He won the 2011 South American Under-20 Championship in Peru and the 2011 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Colombia, scoring in both tournaments. On 12 March 2018, Tite named him in the senior squad for friendlies against Russia and Germany. He did not play in either game and never won a senior cap.
Spartak Moscow and Bahia
On 1 July 2024 he joined Spartak Moscow and spent half a season in the Russian league. On 14 January 2025 he returned to Brazilian football with Bahia. In his first year in Salvador he won the 2025 Campeonato Baiano, decided against Vitória in March. He also won the 2025 Copa do Nordeste. In the first leg of the final, on 3 September, he scored one of the goals in a 4-1 win over Confiança in Aracaju. Bahia won the return leg 5-0 in Salvador to claim their fifth title in the competition. On 7 March 2026 he set up Jean Lucas’s equaliser as Bahia came from behind to beat Vitória 2-1 and won the 2026 Campeonato Baiano unbeaten.
BahiaForwardMarket value €280.0K