Internacional After coming through the youth ranks of
Internacional, Nilmar was promoted to the first team in 2002 and appeared regularly.
Lyon Nilmar was signed by
Lyon in the summer of 2004, initially as cover for fellow Brazilian forward
Giovane Élber. 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
Rennes. He did not score any more goals in the
Ligue 1 that season.
Corinthians 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.
Return to Internacional On 17 August 2007, the Justiça do Trabalho (literally "court of employment") cancelled Nilmar's contract because Corinthians and third-party owner
MSI owed the player €2 million. Nilmar was consequently available to sign for any club for free, while Corinthians must still pay the transfer debt of €8million they owed to Lyon for Nilmar's original transfer in 2006. Eventually Corinthians agreed to pay Lyon €6.5 million for the overdue portion of the transfer debt in December 2007. after losing the case in the
Court of Arbitration for Sport Internacional had sold 20% economic rights for
R$5.46 million to unknown parties in 2007. He made his new debut for the
Porto Alegre team on 4 November 2007, when Inter beat
CR Vasco da Gama 2–1. He was chosen as the Man of the Match. In January 2008, he scored an impressive goal against
Internazionale of Italy in the Dubai Cup final, which helped his side win the game. In the summer of 2008,
Palermo offered €15 million, with a bonus of up to €3 million. This was rejected, however, and activated the clause that Internacional bought 20% economic rights from Nilmar for reported €2.4 million, with other parties retained 50% economic rights. In December 2008, he scored the winning goal in the
Copa Sudamericana final match, giving Internacional the title. It was the first time that the Copa Sudamericana was won by a Brazilian club.
Villarreal In July 2009, Nilmar returned to Europe, signing for Spain's
Villarreal CF for an estimated €10 million fee. He built up a prolific strike partnership with Italy international
Giuseppe Rossi, which he likened to his title-winning alliance with
Carlos Tevez at Corinthians. 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.
Al Rayyan On 15 July 2012,
Qatar Stars League side
Al Rayyan announced that they signed Nilmar on a four-year deal, ahead of undergoing a medical. He was loaned to
Lekhwiya for one game on 31 December so that he could take part in the club's friendly match against
PSG on 2 January 2013. He was selected as a cover for
Sebastián Soria who was training with the
Qatar national team for the upcoming Asian Cup. On 6 August 2013, he declared to Arabic news network Al Jazeera that he was looking to terminate his loan at Lekhwiya and return to Al Rayyan following a training ground bust up with Lekhwiya first team coach Oliver Rumbold.
El Jaish, second return to Internacional On 24 January 2014, Nilmar signed for
El Jaish. On 16 September, already as a
free agent, he returned to Internacional for a third spell, signing until December 2017.
Al-Nasr On 30 July 2015, Nilmar moved to
Al-Nasr for two seasons. After scoring 11 league goals in his first season, he was separated from the first team.
Santos On 10 July 2017, Nilmar signed a contract with
Santos until December 2018, after being released by Al-Nasr. In September, after just 39 minutes of action in two appearances, his contract was suspended with the player alleging "personal reasons"; it was later revealed that he was suffering with
depression. On 13 December 2017, Nilmar cut ties with Santos, after appearing in just two matches. ==International career==