Having played at Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Philippe Coutinho has competed at the highest level across the Europe.

Coutinho is a versatile player who can play in multiple positions, in particular as an attacking midfielder or as a left winger..

Coutinho was signed by Inter Milan as a 16-year-old in 2008 for a fee of £3.3million from Vasco da Gama in Brazil.

He was allowed to stay at Vasco da Gama for two more seasons on loan to further his development, before joining Inter in 2010.

Coutinho struggled to cement his position in the Inter starting line-up, and at the start of 2012 he spent half a season on loan with Espanyol under Mauricio Pochettino.

In January 2013, an £8.5m deal saw him join Liverpool, where he spent five successful years and won the club's Player of the Year award on two occasions, in 2015 and 2016.

The Brazilian playmaker joined Barcelona in January 2018 for a club-record fee of £105million. However, he has struggled to replicate his form shown in a Liverpool shirt.

In the 2019/20 season he experienced a successful, although somewhat frustrating, season-long loan deal with Bayern Munich, which saw him win the Bundesliga title, DFB German Cup and the Champions League trophy.

Barcelona loaned Coutinho to Premier League side Aston Villa in January 2022 and the move was made permanent in May in a deal believed to be around £17million.

In September 2023, he completed a season-long loan move from Aston Villa to Qatari side Al Duhail.

The following season he returned to Vasco de Gama, again on a season-long loan.

 

Liverpool favourite

Coutinho spent five years on Merseyside having joined Liverpool in January 2013 for a fee of £8.5million from Inter Milan.

Coutinho played a major role in Liverpool's title run in the 2013/14 season under Brendan Rodgers, which they ultimately lost to Manchester City on the final day.

The following season the playmaker won Club Player of the Year as his side struggled to mount any pressure at the top and only managed sixth. Coutinho was also the only Liverpool player to be named in the PFA Team of the Year that season.

He continued to be a standout player in the 2015/16 and 2016/17 campaigns, but he failed to win any silverware.

In the summer of 2017 Liverpool rejected a £72million bid from Barcelona as they saw Coutinho as intergral to their trophy-winning plans.

However, rumours began circulating that Coutinho was no longer happy as a Liverpool player, and considered himself to be undervalued by manager Jurgen Klopp.

Despite scoring 12 goals and assisting nine others in the first half of the 2017/18 season, Coutinho got his move to Camp Nou in January 2018.

However, due to the way his transfer was engineered his legacy among the Liverpool fans was tarnished. He ended his Liverpool career with 201 appearances and 54 goals in all competitions.

Barcelona years

As a favourite at Anfield, Coutinho's club-record signing created a lot of excitement amongst Barcelona fans.

After initially struggling to break into the starting line-up, by April 2018 Coutinho had started to find his feet in the Spanish game.

He helped Barcelona to the domestic title and their fourth Copa del Rey trophy in a row. He also scored 10 times for Barca including a sublime curling effort in the final game of the season.

However the 2018/19 season did not go as expected for the 'Little Magician'.

Despite his side retaining the La Liga title, Coutinho looked unsettled throughout, and struggled to adapt to the playing style under manager Erenesto Valverde.

The low point of the season for Barcelona and Coutinho was the historic semi-final defeat to his former club, Liverpool, in the Champions League.

Despite winning the first leg 3-0 at Camp Nou, Coutinho's return to Anfield would end in dramatic fashion, as Liverpool overturned their first leg deficit to win 4-0.

Coutinho received a 0/10 rating from Catalan paper 'Sport' and was branded as 'invisible' in the match report.

Following this, Coutinho was sent out on a season-long loan deal to Bayern Munich for the 2019/20 campaign, in an attempt to rediscover his form.

The Brazilian scored 11 goals and created nine more in 38 games for the German side. He scored twice in the 8-2 thrashing of his home club Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-final and appeared as a substitute in Bayern's 1-0 victory over PSG in the final.

On his return to Barcelona, Coutinho drifted further from the first team picture at Camp Nou, which was not helped by a season ending injury in December 2020.

He returned to England in January 2022 for a loan spell with Aston Villa where he hoped to rediscover the form that earned him the Barcelona move.

The 29-year-old immediately won over the Villa faithful by scoring the equaliser in a 2-2 draw with Manchester United.

He made 19 appearances for Villa in the 2021/22 season scoring five and claiming three assists, as the club finished the season in 14th. In May, Villa confimed they had signed Coutinho on a permanent deal believed to be around £17m.

But the Brazilian playmaker fell down the pecking order at Villa after making the permanent move..

He started only seven Premier League matches in the 2022/23 season and did not make an appearance after mid-February.

In the 2023/24 campaign he twice came off the bench before suffering a hamstring injury and then was sent on a season-long loan to reigning Qatari champions Al Duhail.

He had made 43 appearances during 18 months with Villa, scoring six goals.

Coutinho scored eight goals in 23 appearances for Al Duhail, and when he returned to Villa he was sent out to boyhood club Vasco de Gama on another season-long loan. 

 

International career with Brazil

Coutinho has been involved at all levels of international soccer, having made his debut for Brazil at Under-14 level.

He eventually made his senior debut in October 2010 when he started in a 1-0 friendly victory over Iran.

Coutinho was surprisingly excluded from the 2014 World Cup squad despite having a strong season with Liverpool, but was included the following year in the squad for the 2015 Copa America.

He also scored his first international goal that year in a 2-0 friendly win against Mexico.

The playmaker then got his first World Cup call-up in 2018. Making his World Cup debut against Switzerland in the group stages, Coutinho scored Brazil's only goal in a 1-1 tie.

He went on to score against Costa Rica in the next group stage game in a 2-0 win, but his side was knocked out by Belgium in a 2-1 defeat at the quarter-final stage.

Coutinho was part of Brazil's Copa America winning side of 2019. He played in every game of the tournament and scored twice in the opening group match against Bolivia. He missed the defence of the trophy in 2021 with a knee injury, as Brazil lost to Argentina 1-0 in the final.

He returned for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, scoring against Paraguay and Chile, but wasn't named in the squad for the tournament in Qatar because of an injury.

 

Personal life

Coutinho has been married to Aine Coutinho since 2012. They have three children, Maria (2015), Esmeralda (2018) and Jose (2020).

Coutinho's body art also reveals his devotion to family. Tattoo sleeves from bicep to fingers on both arms are a tribute to his parents, two brothers and Aine.

Net worth

Coutinho was reportedly earning £125,000-a-week at Aston Villa, considerably less than the £470,000 a week at Barcelona. It is estimated he has a net worth of around £60million.

The Brazilian's assets include a beachside property, which was chosen by former teammate Luis Suarez, and an Aston Martin V8 Vantage worth $160,000.