Born in Lauro Müller, Santa Catarina state, Éder started his career at Criciúma Esporte Clube. He made his first team – and Campeonato Brasileiro Série A – debut on 19 December 2004, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 3–3 home draw against Coritiba, with his side being already relegated.

Éder signed with Frosinone in a co-ownership deal for a fee of €600,000 in June 2008 following a loan spell during the second half of the 2007–08 Serie B season.

Empoli bought Éder back from Frosinone in June 2009 for €2.42 million following an impressive Serie B season by the striker. He scored four goals in one Serie B game on 13 April 2010, two of which were penalties, in a 5–2 victory for Empoli over Salernitana. He finished the 2009–10 Serie B season as top scorer, with 27 goals.

On 20 August 2010, Éder signed a 1+4 year contract with Serie A newcomers Brescia, meaning that Éder would join Brescia on loan for the first year. Brescia later revealed in its financial report that the loan fee was €1.8 million.

Éder scored just six goals for the club and on 13 July 2011 was transferred to Cesena from Empoli in a temporary deal for €2.2 million (which later compensate by the loan fee from Sampdoria).

On 24 January 2012, Éder moved to Sampdoria on a loan deal for €1.1 million fee to Cesena. He scored his first goal for the club on 21 April 2012 in a 1–1 draw with Vicenza. On 3 July 2012, Sampdoria signed Éder outright for €3 million on a five-year contract from Empoli, making Eder had cost Sampdoria €4.1 million in total, while on Empoli side, the club received €7 million fee from 2010 to 2012.

There was controversy surrounding Antonio Conte’s call-up for Éder and Franco Vázquez, respectively born in Brazil and Argentina. Speaking at a Serie A meeting on 23 March 2015, Inter manager Roberto Mancini stated, “The Italian national team should be Italian. An Italian player deserves to play for the national team while someone who wasn’t born in Italy, even if they have relatives, I don’t think they deserve to.” Conte’s response to the use of overseas-born players was: “If Mauro Camoranesi [who was born in Argentina] was allowed to help Italy win the 2006 World Cup, then why can’t Éder and Franco Vázquez lead the Azzurri to glory in next year’s European Championship?”

On 28 March 2015, Éder made his debut for Italy, coming on as a 58th-minute substitute for Simone Zaza in a Euro 2016 qualifier against Bulgaria and scoring the equaliser in a 2–2 draw in the 84th minute. He made his first start three days later against England in a 1–1 draw in Turin, making way for fellow oriundo Vázquez after 61 minutes. On 10 October 2015, Éder opened the scoring in a 3–1 away win over Azerbaijan, which sealed Italy’s qualification for UEFA Euro 2016. On 31 May 2016, he was named to Conte’s 23-man Italy squad for Euro 2016. On 17 June, he scored the only goal against Sweden in the 88th minute during the second group game, which qualified Italy to the Round of 16; he was named Man of the Match by UEFA.

On 29 January 2016, Éder joined Inter on a 1½-year loan deal for €1.2 million which could be made permanent upon the fulfillment of certain conditions. He signed a contract that could keep him at Inter until 2020, and is receiving a wage of reported €1.5 million per year. He was presented to the media on the very same day, where he was assigned the number 23, saying that he did not think twice about signing with Inter. He made his debut for the club on 31 January, in a 3–0 defeat to cross-city rivals Milan in the Derby della Madonnina.

After making his first friendly appearance for Inter of the 2016–17 season on 14 August, the obligation to purchase him in a definitive deal was activated. On 28 January of the following year, Éder celebrated his 200th Serie A appearance by scoring in a 3–0 home win over Pescara. On 14 May 2017, Éder came off the bench to scoring his team’s only goal in the 1–2 home defeat to Sassuolo, before profiting from Mauro Icardi’s injury to start in the last two league matches, scoring against Lazio and a brace against Udinese, taking his tally up to 8 league goals. It was also the first time that Éder had scored in three Serie A matches in a row as an Inter player, and first time since November 2015. He finished his first full season with Inter by making 40 appearances in all competitions, including 33 in Serie A and 6 in Europa League, scoring 10 goals in the process, 8 of which came in Serie A and 2 in the Europa League.

On 2 November 2017, Éder signed a contract extension, penning a new deal until June 2021. Only three days later, he came off the bench to score his first 2017–18 season goal in the 1–1 draw against Torino to help Inter remain undefeated. Éder made his first starts of the 2017–18 season later in February 2018, profiting from Icardi’s injury; the first was in the 1–1 draw versus Crotone where he netted a header in the first half and the second was versus Bologna where he scored inside 90 seconds to lead Inter into a 2–1 home win, the first after eight league matches.

On 13 July 2018, Éder signed with Chinese club Jiangsu Suning for a reported €5.5 million.