Felipe Anderson Pereira Gomes (born 15 April 1993), known simply as Felipe Anderson, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a winger or attacking midfielder for Brasileiro Série A club Palmeiras. He previously played for Santos, West Ham United, Porto, and Lazio. He was capped by the Brazil national team twice.
Born Santa Maria, Distrito Federal, Brazil, Felipe Anderson grew up the youngest of five siblings. His upbringing was poor, with his parents occasionally struggling to buy food for the family due to their debts. As a child, he had to borrow football boots from his friends to play.
During his childhood, Anderson would play football on the streets until he was 11 years old, as children in Brazil could not join professional footballing academies until they were 13. Anderson credits the street football games for his technical skill on the ball.
Felipe Anderson began his career in Associação 14 Companhia de Polícia Militar Independente (CPMIND), in his hometown of Santa Maria at 6 years old. In 2006, he was moved to Federal FC, and later to Sport Clube Recreativo Gaminha FC. After some impressive performances on the club, he was moved to Paraná to play for Astral EC, finishing the year. In 2007, he was moved to Coritiba youth side, and then in 2007 summer he was moved to Santos.
Felipe Anderson then played for Santos' youth categories, and was promoted to the senior squad following a rash of injuries in October 2010. He began training with the senior side and signed a professional contract until July 2013. He made his debut for Santos on 6 October 2010 as a 90th-minute substitute in a 3–0 win against Fluminense.
His first goal of his footballing career came on 11 February 2011, when Felipe came off the bench at half time to replace Keirrison against Noroeste, scoring from a long range shot in the 70th minute. On 7 September, he scored his first league goal, against Avaí. In November, he signed a new contract with Santos, running until 2016.
In his following season, Felipe Anderson had more chances in first team alongside Neymar, due to Ganso's injuries and Elano's poor form (both players left Santos in the middle of the season). On 9 February 2012, he scored his first goal of the season, against Botafogo-SP.
On the 31 January 2013, the agreed transfer to the Italian club Lazio for €7.5 million failed due to late arrival of a necessary international fax from Brazil to close the deal.
On 25 June 2013, Lazio agreed a €7.8 million fee with Santos, and Felipe Anderson signed a five-year deal worth €800,000 a year. Santos received 50% of the transfer sum and third party owner Doyen Sports would get the rest. Lazio's sporting director Igli Tare criticised Doyen Sports for numerous times delaying the transfer, "It will remain in history as the most paradoxical and shocking negotiations I have ever been a part of", said Tare. "These third party owners changed their minds continually. When we had everything decided, they would start from scratch two hours later. It all happened for a full week, so it felt like being in the Twilight Zone."
In his second season at the club, Felipe Anderson achieved 10 goals and nine assists in 27 games across all competitions by April 2015. This included the concluding goal as Lazio defeated Varese 3–0 in the fourth round of the season's Coppa Italia, and an assist in both legs of the tournament's semi-final against holders Napoli, the one in the second leg providing the winning goal by Senad Lulić. In March 2015, Felipe Anderson signed a contract extension at Lazio, renewing his contract until June 2020. He played the full 120 minutes of the Coppa Italia final on 20 May 2015, a 1–2 loss to Juventus.
In July, it was announced that Felipe Anderson would not be wearing the number 7 shirt that he had worn in his previous season with Lazio, but that he would instead be awarded the number 10 shirt. On 8 August, Felipe Anderson appeared in Lazio's 2–0 defeat to Juventus in the 2015 Supercoppa Italiana. On 23 September 2015, Felipe Anderson scored his first goal of the season in a 2–0 victory against Genoa. After scoring the second goal in a 3–1 Europa League win against Rosenborg on 22 October 2015, Felipe Anderson scored twice in a 3–0 win against Torino three days later. In February 2016, Lazio publicly denied rumours that Manchester United had agreed a transfer for Felipe Anderson. Felipe Anderson finished Lazio's season with nine goals in all competitions, coming runner-up to Antonio Candreva in Lazio's scoring charts for the season.
After being the subject of reported interest from Chelsea during the summer, Felipe Anderson remained with Lazio. On 26 October 2016, Felipe Anderson scored his first goal of the season, in a 4–1 win against Cagliari. On 7 May 2017, Felipe Anderson scored a penalty in a 7–3 win against Sampdoria. Lazio secured qualification for the Europa League at the end of the season, with Felipe Anderson scoring five goals in all competitions.
During the 2017–18 season Felipe Anderson's form suffered numerous setbacks. A falling out with manager Simone Inzaghi after a 2–1 defeat to Genoa in February 2018 coupled with a knee injury that kept him out from August to December 2017 restricted Felipe Anderson to just nine Serie A starts for the season. On 20 May 2018, Felipe Anderson scored in his final game for Lazio in a 3–2 defeat to Inter Milan in a game that saw the victors qualify for the Champions League over Lazio.
On 15 July 2018, Felipe Anderson signed for West Ham United for a reported transfer fee of £36 million. The fee surpassed the previous record paid by the club, set with the £22 million signing of Issa Diop earlier in the same transfer window.
Felipe Anderson made his first appearance for West Ham in a 3–1 pre-season friendly victory against Aston Villa on 25 July 2018, in which he combined with Arthur Masuaku to set up West Ham's second goal of the match, scored by Marko Arnautović. He made his full debut on 12 August 2018 in a 4–0 defeat against Liverpool. On 29 September 2018, Felipe Anderson scored his first Premier League goal for West Ham with a back heeled finish in a 3–1 home win against Manchester United. Anderson scored nine league goals in his first season of English football, helping West Ham finish 10th in the Premier League.
The 2019–20 season was a difficult one for Anderson as he found the back of the net just once in a 4–0 win over AFC Bournemouth on 1 January 2020. The departure of manager Manuel Pellegrini saw reduced minutes for the Brazilian as he battled inconsistent form. The goal against Bournemouth signalled changing fortunes, however, a troublesome back injury saw Anderson fall out of new manager David Moyes' plans. Following the interruption of the 2019–20 Premier League season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Anderson only made three appearances out of a total of nine games following the restart to the season.
On 6 October 2020, Felipe Anderson joined Portuguese club Porto on a season-long loan. It was a widely anticipated move for the out-of-form Brazilian to gain much needed confidence and playing time. On arrival at the club, Anderson said he was "fulfilling a dream" to play in both the UEFA Champions League and Primeira Liga whilst also insisting that he will still attempt to regain a starting spot at West Ham the following season. He made his Porto debut on 17 October, replacing Luis Díaz in the 59th minute of a 2–2 draw at Sporting CP.
Throughout the season, Anderson only made five Primeira Liga appearances - largely put down to a sour relationship with manager Sérgio Conceição. In October, he suggested Anderson "needs to work hard" and there were many indications Anderson was signed against the manager's wishes. At the end of the season, Anderson seemed to criticise the manager stating that he applied himself from the beginning but "wasn't given many opportunities to play."