Douglas dos Santos Justino de Melo was born on 22 March 1994 in Joao Pessoa, Brazil. He began his career at Nautico and made his debut in February 2012. In the summer of 2013, he moved to Granada in Spain, but was immediately loaned out to Udinese in Italy and a year later made that move permanent.

In 2014, he returned to Atletico Mineiro in Brazil and played 99 matches and scored three goals for the club, winning the Brazilian Cup and the League of Mineiro in his time there.

 In August 2016 he made the move to Hamburg and played 88 times there, again scoring three goals and making nine assists before attracting the attention of Zenit.
With Brazil he won a gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games and made his debut for the full Brazilian side in May 2016 against Panama.

Douglas Santos joined us at Zenit in July 2019 and has played 66 matches, scored three goals and made 17 assists on his way to winning two Russian league titles and teh Russian Cup.