On the night of June 20, Guangzhou Evergrande FC's foreign player Paulinho officially announced his return to the team through his personal social media platform.
Paulinho took to social media platforms to express his emotions, saying that he was coming to the end of an important chapter in his career and that the outbreak had forced him to say goodbye to the club early.
Since joining Guangzhou Evergrande in 2015, Paulinho has played 172 matches for the team and contributed 74 goals. Under his leadership, Evergrande has won a total of 8 championship honors, including 1 AFC Champions League title, 3 Chinese Super League titles, 2 Super Cup titles and 1 AFC Cup title. Paulinho is not only the most reliable midfield core of the team, but also an indispensable part of Evergrande's rise.
Back on June 29, 2015, Guangzhou Evergrande signed Paulinho from Tottenham Hotspur for €14 million. In the AFC Champions League quarterfinals that season, Paulinho opened the record for his AFC Champions League debut with a free kick international from 40 meters out, helping his team win the title. Subsequently in the Club World Cup Quarter-Final, he is to help the team killed the Mexican American team, broke into the semi-finals. Although the semi-final Evergrande eventually defeated Barcelona, but Paulinho's 3 steals still left a deep impression on people. In the 27th round of the Chinese Super League (CSL) in the same year against Renhe, Paulinho's strike helped the team win their fifth CSL trophy in their history.
In the 2016 season, Paulinho played all 30 rounds as the team's starting midfielder and scored eight goals, helping Guangzhou Evergrande defend its sixth consecutive Chinese Super League title two rounds ahead of schedule and assisting the team to win the FA Cup and Super Cup.
In August 2017, Paulinho moved to Barcelona in Spain, helping the team win La Liga and the Copa del Rey.In July 2018, he returned to Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Club on loan and was named to the 2018 Chinese Super League Best XI in the same season.
Paulinho, Golat and Talisca formed the "Gao Baota" combination in the 2019 season of the Chinese Super League, to help Guangzhou Evergrande once again won the Chinese Super League title. However, the epidemic and the implementation of the Chinese Super League salary restriction policy has made Paulinho's return to China difficult. His departure is undoubtedly a big loss for Guangzhou Evergrande.
