Nilmar Honorato da Silva (born 14 July 1984), commonly known as Nilmar, is a Brazilian footballer who currently plays as a striker for Villarreal CF and the Brazilian national team.
Nilmar was signed for Olympique Lyonnais in summer 2004, initially as cover for the now ex-Lyon player Élber Giovane. He signed with a clause in his contract that stated that he could be loaned back to Internacional once Élber was fit.
Nilmar was signed for Olympique Lyonnais in summer 2004, initially as cover for the now ex-Lyon player Élber Giovane. He signed with a clause in his contract that stated that he could be loaned back to Internacional once Élber was fit.
Nilmar made an impressive start during his stint at Lyon, scoring two debut goals as a substitute against Stade Rennais. Unfortunately, he did not score any more goals in the Ligue 1 that season.
With the impending signing of Fred, Lyon chose to loan Nilmar out, this time to Corinthians in his native Brazil. They were somewhat forced to do this in order to stay within the limit of non-EU players.
As well as this law, Lyon already had four established forwards, namely Fred, Sylvain Wiltord, Milan Baroš, and Sidney Govou, and, despite his good performances with Corinthians, Nilmar was ultimately sold to the South American club, for €10 million. At Corinthians, the young striker hit the target on his debut against São Paulo FC, with almost his first touch of the ball and he continued to impress fans and critics alike throughout his first season. His skill, speed, and mazy dribbles helped win him a place in the Brazilian League all-star team for the 2005 season.
Fernando Roig, the President of Villarreal CF confirmed the signing of Nilmar on 25 July 2009.
He started Villarreal's first game of the La Liga 2009–10 against CA Osasuna. Santi Cazorla scored Villarreal's only goal of the game and Nilmar played the full 90 minutes. Nilmar and Giuseppe Rossi are currently the first-choice strikers for Villarreal.
On 17 September 2009, Nilmar scored the winning goal in the Europa League group stage clash against Bulgarian side Levski Sofia. On 10 March 2011, he netted twice (including a last-minute goal) to help his team to a 3:2 away win against German club Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of a last 16 round match of the Europa League. He again netted twice against Twente which his side won 5–1 at home
