Cláudio Adalberto Adão,áudioAdã or simply Cláudio Adão (born in Volta Redonda, 2 July 1955), is a former Brazilian football player. A gifted forward, Adão was the top-scorer of almost every championship he's played.
His first professional club was Santos FC, where he arrived in 1972. When Pelé left Santos in 1974, the club predicted a brilliant future ahead for Adão as Pelé's natural replacement. But they couldn't predict Adão would suffer a serious injury that would leave him off of the pitch for several months.
Physicians believed Adão's career to be prematurely ended when Flamengo's coach, Cláudio Coutinho (who was himself a physical fitness expert) asked his club to sign Adão.
Santos let Adão go and, at Flamengo, he underwent intensive physical therapy. The results were fantastic and Adão quickly became an idol. Not only at Flamengo, but in every other club he has played for until he retired, hundreds of goals later, at almost 40 years old.
In Brazil, Adão played for Botafogo, Vasco, Fluminense, Portuguesa-SP, Corinthians, Bangu, EC Bahia, Cruzeiro, Portuguesa-RJ, Campo Grande-RJ, Ceará SC, Santa Cruz, Volta Redonda FC, Rio Branco-RJ and Desportiva-ES.
His international career included FK Austria Wien, Al Ain FC, Benfica and Sport Boys.
Adão further represented Brazil in the 1989 edition of the World Cup of Masters, scoring a hat trick in the final against Uruguay.
After retirement, he managed several clubs, CSA, Ceará, Rio Branco-ES, and Volta Redonda FC, his current club. As Rio Branco-ES manager, they won the 2001 Campeonato Capixaba.