JONATHAN DOS SANTOS

Jonathan dos Santos Ramírez born 26 April 1990 in Mexico City is a Mexican soccer player who plays as a central or defensive midfielder for FC Barcelona B. He has also been called up to the Mexican national team. His father, Zizinho was a Brazilian Mexican soccer player, and his mother is Mexican. He was competing along with his brother Giovani dos Santos in a youth tournament in France, were he was spotted by FC Barcelona scouts who were impressed with what they saw and decided to bring him and his brother to Barcelona


In the 2008–09 season he was in Juvenil A where he was captain of the team. During that same season he obtained a Spanish passport and thereby acquired Citizenship of the European Union, which enables him to play in the first team.


In the summer of 2009, he was selected by the manager of FC Barcelona B, Luis Enrique, to form part of the second team Blaugrana. Subsequently, Josep Guardiola called him up to the first team during pre-season in England and the tour in the United States. On 15 August 2009, dos Santos was called up for his first official game with the first team in the Supercopa de España against Athletic Bilbao, although he was eventually ruled out and saw the game as a spectator. He made his debut with Barcelona Atlètic on 5 September 2009 against Mallorca B. The match finished in a 1–1 draw. Jonathan dos Santos made his debut for Barcelona on 28 October 2009, coming on as a substitute for Seydou Keita in the 80th minute in an away Copa del Rey match against Cultural Leonesa, which Barcelona won by 2–0. He made his Champions League debut for Barcelona on 24 November 2009 against Internazionale in a 2–0 win at the Camp Nou when he replaced Andrés Iniesta in the 92nd minute. Due to the lengthy 2009-2010 season many Barcelona players were given breaks towards the end of the year. This meant the first team was going to be a few men short, and hence four Barça B players were called up by Josep Guardiola on 29 December 2009. Among these four were dos Santos, Thiago Alcântara, Gai Assulin and Víctor Vázquez.  His La Liga debut came on 2 January 2010 when he started against Villarreal CF before being substituted by Andrés Iniesta in the 60th minute.


Dos Santos was called up by Guardiola to the first team during pre-season along with other players of Barça B. In the first three matches, Guardiola played him as defensive midfielder, a position he had never played before. Nevertheless, dos Santos said, "I've felt comfortable in this position."


On 26 July 2011, dos Santos started, and scored a goal in the 2–2 tie against Internacional Porto Alegre in the 2011 Audi Cup. The match went to a penalty shootout, were he scored as well. Barcelona advanced to the final, where they beat Bayern Munich 2–0. dos Santos was part of the starting line-up in both matches, though he played at right defender in the final.
Dos Santos made his season debut on 29 August in the 5–0 home win against Villarreal CF, coming in as a substitute for Cesc Fàbregas in the 70th minute.
On 24 November dos Santos signed a contract extension which will keep him at Barcelona until 2015.




Dos Santos made his debut for the Mexico national football team when he started in a friendly against Colombia on 30 September 2009. He was substituted for Patricio Araujo in the 72nd minute; Colombia won the game 2–1. This meant that he represented his international team before debuting for his club team.
On 3 March 2010, Jonathan dos Santos played 61 minutes against New Zealand. During the game, off a corner from Cuauhtémoc Blanco, the ball rolled towards him and he shot from outside the box but hit the crossbar.
On 31 May 2010 it was announced that dos Santos had been left out of Mexico's 23-man final squad for the 2010 World Cup.
In May 2011 it was announced that Jonathan was left out of the 2011 Gold Cup final squad. On 24 May 2011 Jonathan was called up to play the Copa America.[20] He was subsequently dismissed from the team due to him and seven other players gathering up prostitutes in their hotel rooms in Quito, Ecuador.