Grafite
Encyclopedia
Edinaldo Batista Libânio (born 2 April 1979 in Campo Limpo Paulista
Campo Limpo Paulista
Campo Limpo Paulista is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2010 is 74,114 and the area is 80.267 km². The elevation is 745 m. The town is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Campo Limpo....

, São Paulo
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...

), commonly known as Grafite is a Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian footballer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 who plays for UAE Football League club Al-Ahli Dubai.

The 189 cm tall striker won in 2005 the Copa Libertadores and the Club World Championship with São Paulo FC. With Wolfsburg he won the national championship in 2008–09, the same season he topped the Bundesliga scorers list and received German Player of the Year honours.

Beginnings

Edinaldo Libânio grew up in modest circumstances in the hinterland of the State of São Paulo
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...

. He made his first money with the door to door sales of rubbish bags. His talent as football player however earned him his first professional contract in 1999 with the Matão
Matão
Matão is a city in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2004 is 75,929 and the area is 528.44 km². The elevation is 585 m.-Corpus Christi Feast:...

 based club SE Matonense with which he played in the first division of the State Championship. In the beginning of 2000 he moved from there for a brief period to the fourth division club Ferroviária
Associação Ferroviária de Esportes
Associação Ferroviária de Esportes, or Ferroviária, as they are usually called, is a Brazilian football team from Araraquara in São Paulo state, founded on April 12, 1950. Ferroviária is the only Araraquara's club to reach the Campeonato Paulista first division. The club's best campaign in that...

 in the neighboring town of Araraquara
Araraquara
Not to be confused with Araracuara, a town, region, genus of trees in ColombiaAraraquara is a city in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is also known as "the abode of the sun," because of its impressive sunset and because of its hazy temperature, especially in summer.More than 200,000 people...

 – a club that actually had seen some quite gifted players in its teams in better seasons.

In the middle of the year he signed on with the first division club Santa Cruz FC of the north-eastern Brazilian city Recife
Recife
Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...

. There he scored 5 goals in 22 league matches, which did not aid in preventing relegation to Série B
Serie B
Serie B, currently named Serie bwin due to sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It is contested by 22 teams and organized by the Lega Serie B since July 2010, after the split of Lega Calcio that previously took care of both the...

.

However, he attracted the attention of Grêmio Porto Alegre, another first division club, which hired him for a transfer fee of one million real
Brazilian real
The real is the present-day currency of Brazil. Its sign is R$ and its ISO code is BRL. It is subdivided into 100 centavos ....

 – of this sum Santa Cruz had to forward about 700,000 real to Matonense.

Luck was not with him in Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...

. Right at the beginning of the year he incured a severe knee injury, which saw him sidelined for several months. In July 2002, at one of his first matches for the Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...

 club the team was eliminated by Paraguay's
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...

 Club Olimpia in the semi-finals of the Libertadores. He played six more Série A
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...

 matches for Grêmio, without scoring, before being returned in September to Santa Cruz on a loan.

With his old club he failed in the Série B semifinals against Criciúma EC to attain promotion to the national top flight. Altogether he scored three second division goals for the Recife club in this phase.

Right at the beginning of 2003 Grafite was forwarded to the FC Seoul
FC Seoul
FC Seoul is a South Korean professional football club based in Seoul, South Korea, that plays in the K-League. It is currently owned by GS Sports, a subsidiary of GS Group....

 of the South Korean
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

 K-League
K-League
The Korea Professional Football League is South Korea's only fully professional association football league. At the top of the South Korean football league system, it is the country's highest and most prestigious level of football competition currently contested by 16 clubs.-Establishment:The...

 then known as Anyang LG Cheetahs. This remained a brief, undistinguished stint and both, player and club, were happy to part ways by mid-year.

Success with Goiás and São Paulo

Back in Brazil Grafite joined first division club Goiás EC in the city of Goiânia
Goiânia
-Climate:The city has a tropical wet and dry climate with an average temperature of . There's a wet season, from October to April, and a dry one, from May to September. Annual rainfall is around 1,520 mm....

. This move soon led to legal differences as to who owned the rights to the player, where Grêmio made claims. Another matter in the case were outstanding wage payments by Santa Cruz FC until the end of the previous year. Matters found a resolution in the best interest of Grafite and his new club.

Grafite considered the time in the capital of the state of Goiás
Goiás
Goiás is a state of Brazil, located in the central part of the country. The name Goiás comes from the name of an indigenous community...

 as his "rebirth as a footballer". In the course of the season he developed together with Dimba, who became the league's top scorer with 31 goals, and
Araújo
Clemerson de Araújo Soares
Clemerson de Araújo Soares, best known as Araújo is a Brazilian footballer. Currently playing for Fluminense in Brazil after recently moving from Al-Gharafa ....

, who, like Grafite, hit the goal 12 times, into the outstanding attack formation of the club's history. Goiás finished the season ninth, which was considered a success for the club from Brazil's central-west. Grafite himself was awarded with a Bola de Prata
Bola de Prata
The Bola de Prata is a Primeira Liga award for the top scorer. In case two or more players have the same amount of goals, the award goes to the footballer with the least games played. It was first awarded has a prize in the 1952–53 season by sport newspaper A Bola.-List of winners:...

 as best player on his position over the season.

At the beginning of 2004 Grafite was hired by the Brazilian top-side São Paulo FC where he won in April 2005 with the State Championship of São Paulo
Campeonato Paulista
The Campeonato Paulista de Futebol Profissional da Primeira Divisão - Série A1, simply known as the Campeonato Paulista, is the top-flight professional football league in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The league is contested between 20 clubs and typically lasts from January to April...

 his first title.

In the same month Grafite made it world-wide into the headlines. In the Libertadores group match against the Argentine club Quilmes AC in the Morumbi Stadium he had a hefty encounter with defender Leandro Desábato
Leandro Desábato
Leandro Desábato , nicknamed Chavo, is an Argentine football defender who plays for Estudiantes de La Plata of the Argentine Primera División.-Club career:...

 whom he accused of racial slurs. Together with the Argentine midfielder Carlos Arano
Carlos Arano
Carlos Andrés Arano, , nicknamed Chiche, is an Argentine footballer who plays for River Plate.-External links:...

, who tried to intervene, he was sent off. Still during the match, Grafite reported the incident to the police, which arrested Desábato after the final whistle on his way to the locker room for racial insults and moved him to a police station for a further interview. After two days in police arrest Desábato was released against a bond and was allowed to return to Argentina.

Another exciting event for Grafite in this month was an invitation by the coach of the Brazilian national football team, Carlos Alberto Parreira
Carlos Alberto Parreira
Carlos Alberto Gomes Parreira is a Brazilian former football manager. He managed Brazil to championships at the 1994 World Cup, the 2004 Copa América, and the 2005 Confederations Cup...

 to join the Seleção for the first time when it lined up for a friendly against Guatemala
Guatemala national football team
The Guatemala national football team is the association football team representing the country of Guatemala and is controlled by the Federación Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala. Founded in 1919, it affiliated to FIFA in 1946, and it is a member of CONCACAF....

 on 27 April in São Paulo's Pacaembú Stadium. Grafite contributed with one goal to the 3–0 score.

Until the end of the year Grafite could collect two more titles, winning the Copa Libertadores and the Club World Championship. Whilst he was not in the line-ups of any of the two Libertadores finals against Atlético Paranaense, he played in the last 15 minutes of the Club World Championship final in November in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 against Liverpool
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...

, which São Paulo won 1–0.

Move to Europe

In January 2006 French club Le Mans UC 72, promoted to the first division in 2005, hired the Brazilian striker. Grafite debuted in February, and until the end of the season he had scored three times in eleven league matches. 2006–07 he was in the league line-up of MUC in 34 of 38 matches and scored 12 goals, which made him the top goal-getter of the club – which finished the season 12th – and third in France over all. At the beginning of the 2007–08 season he played six more league matches for Le Mans, scoring a further two goals, before being transferred to German Bundesliga
Fußball-Bundesliga
The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...

 club VfL Wolfsburg
VfL Wolfsburg
VfL Wolfsburg is a professional German association football club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, who play in the Bundesliga football competition. Wolfsburg have won the Bundesliga once in their history, in the 2008–09 season, and were DFB-Pokal runners-up in 1995. The current head coach is Felix...

 on 31 August, the last day of the transfer period, for a fee of about € 5.6 million.

VfL Wolfsburg

With Wolfsburg he signed a four year contract, which he extended in 2009 until 2012. Until the end of his first season he scored 11 times in 24 matches, and was also here his team's highest scorer. At the end of the following season the Felix Magath
Felix Magath
Wolfgang-Felix Magath is a former German football central midfielder and current manager of VfL Wolfsburg.-Playing career:...

-managed Wolves were champions of Germany for the first time, and Grafite contributed with 28 goals in 25 matches, making him the leagues top striker. Alongside his partner in the attack, Edin Džeko
Edin Džeko
Edin Džeko is a Bosnian footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester City and the Bosnian national team. He was named Bosnian Footballer of the Year for 2009 and 2010...

, who scored 26 goals, he formed the best striker partnership in Bundesliga history, together totalling 54 goals, topping the achievements of Gerd Müller
Gerd Müller
Gerhard "Gerd" Müller is a former German football player and one of the most prolific goalscorers of all time.With national records of 68 goals in 62 international appearances, 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga games and the international record of 66 goals in 74 European Club games, he was one of the...

 and Uli Hoeneß from the 1971–72 season, who then scored 53 goals.

One of the goals of Wolfsburg's 5–1 against FC Bayern Munich
FC Bayern Munich
FC Bayern Munich , is a German sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional football team, which is the most successful football club in Germany, having won 22 national titles and 15 cups....

, when he dribbled past several defenders and then finished with a slow shot with his heel, even brought him international attention. In Germany it was voted Goal of the Year. In October 2009, FIFA announced the introduction of the FIFA Puskás Award
FIFA Puskas Award
The FIFA Puskás Award is an award established on 20 October 2009 by FIFA at the behest of FIFA President Sepp Blatter in order to award the player, male or female, judged to have scored the most aesthetically significant and "most beautiful" goal of the year...

, awarded to the player who has scored the "most beautiful goal" over the past year. The inaugural Puskás Award went to Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, OIH, , commonly known as Cristiano Ronaldo, is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a winger or striker for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and is the captain of the Portuguese national team...

 and Grafite's effort was rated third. Grafite, however, was rewarded with the highest individual honour German football has to bestow, and was voted Footballer of the Year, and became the only third foreigner to achieve this.

By ESPN Brasil
ESPN Brasil
ESPN Brasil is a Brazilian cable television network. Launched in June 1995 through a joint venture between ESPN Inc. and Grupo Abril's television arm TVA, ESPN Brasil was the first country-specific version of ESPN outside the United States. Today, the network has 12.2 million subscribers...

 he also received the Prêmio Futebol no Mundo award as the promising discovery of the 2008–09 season, as well as the top goalscorer award of the same season.

In Wolfsburg's
VfL Wolfsburg
VfL Wolfsburg is a professional German association football club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, who play in the Bundesliga football competition. Wolfsburg have won the Bundesliga once in their history, in the 2008–09 season, and were DFB-Pokal runners-up in 1995. The current head coach is Felix...

 first ever Champions League match against CSKA Moscow on 15 September 2009, Grafite scored a hat-trick
Hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick in sport is the achievement of a positive feat three times during a game, or other achievements based on threes. The term was first used in 1858 in cricket to describe HH Stephenson's feat of taking three wickets in three balls. A collection was held for Stephenson, and he...

 to beat the Russian side 3–1 at the Volkswagen Arena
Volkswagen Arena
Volkswagen Arena is a multi-purpose stadium in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany and serves as the home stadium for 2008/09 Bundesliga champions VfL Wolfsburg. The Volkswagen Arena replaced the former stadium of VfL Wolfsburg, the VFL Stadion.- History :...

 in Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located on the River Aller northeast of Braunschweig , and is mainly notable as the headquarters of Volkswagen AG...

, becoming only the sixth player to score a hat-trick on his Champions League debut.

Al-Ahli Dubai

On 19 June 2011, Grafite announced he had signed with Al Ahli in the UAE Pro-League
UAE Pro-League
The UAE Pro-League is the First Division of the UAE Football League, commonly known as Etisalat Pro-League for sponsorship reasons, since 2008, is the top professional association football league in United Arab Emirates...

 on a two year contract.

International career

On 2 March 2010, after almost five years since his debut for the national team he finally made his second appearance coming on as a substitution for Adriano in the game against Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland national football team
The Republic of Ireland national football team represents Ireland in association football. It is run by the Football Association of Ireland and currently plays home fixtures at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, which opened in May 2010....

 at the Emirates Stadium
Emirates Stadium
Ashburton Grove, currently known as the Emirates Stadium, is a UEFA elite football stadium which is home to Arsenal FC, where they moved from Highbury in 2006. It has an current capacity of 60,361, and there have been rumours of an expansion...

 in London. He was call-up to the squad after Luis Fabiano
Luís Fabiano
Luís Fabiano Clemente , commonly known as Luís Fabiano, is a Brazilian footballer who currently plays for São Paulo and the Brazilian national football team as a striker.-Early career:...

 who originally received the call-up injured.

On 11 May, Dunga used the almost exact squad against Ireland (except Adriano and Carlos Eduardo who replaced injured Elano, the original call-up one) plus Heurelho Gomes as the provisional 23-men 2010 FIFA World Cup
2010 FIFA World Cup
The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010...

 squad, plus additional 7 backup players.

Club career

|-
|2001||Ferroviária
Associação Ferroviária de Esportes
Associação Ferroviária de Esportes, or Ferroviária, as they are usually called, is a Brazilian football team from Araraquara in São Paulo state, founded on April 12, 1950. Ferroviária is the only Araraquara's club to reach the Campeonato Paulista first division. The club's best campaign in that...

||Unknown||?||?||?||?||?||?||?||?
|-
|2001||Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Futebol Clube
Santa Cruz Futebol Clube, or simply Santa Cruz is a Brazilian football club in Recife, Pernambuco.-Early history:On February 3, 1914, eleven young men aging from 14 to 16 years founded a football society...

||Unknown||22||5||?||?||?||?||?||?
|-
|2002||Grêmio
Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense
Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense, commonly known as just Grêmio , is a Brazilian professional association football team based in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul founded by English and German immigrants on September 15, 1903. Major titles captured by Grêmio include one Intercontinental Cup, two Copa...

||Brasileirão||6||0||?||?||?||?||?||?
|-

|-
|2003||Anyang LG Cheetahs
FC Seoul
FC Seoul is a South Korean professional football club based in Seoul, South Korea, that plays in the K-League. It is currently owned by GS Sports, a subsidiary of GS Group....

||K-League
K-League
The Korea Professional Football League is South Korea's only fully professional association football league. At the top of the South Korean football league system, it is the country's highest and most prestigious level of football competition currently contested by 16 clubs.-Establishment:The...

||9||0||?||?||?||?||?||?

|-
|2003||rowspan="1"|Goiás
Goiás Esporte Clube
Goiás Esporte Clube, also known as Goiás, is a Brazilian football team in Goiânia, Goiás state. It is one of the largest clubs of the Central-Western part of Brazil and they won the 'Série B once.Its main rival is Vila Nova...

||rowspan="3"|Brasileirão||20||12||?||?||?||?||?||?
|-
|2004||rowspan="2"|São Paulo||38||17||?||?||?||?||?||?
|-
|2005||6||0||?||?||?||?||?||?
|-

|-
|2005–06||rowspan="3"|Le Mans||rowspan="3"|Ligue 1
Ligue 1
Ligue 1 , is the French professional league for association football clubs. It is the country's primary football competition and serves as the top division of the French football league system. Ligue 1 is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Professionnel, the other being Ligue 2....

||11||3||?||?||?||?||?||?
|-
|2006–07||34||12||?||?||?||?||?||?
|-
|2007–08||6||2||?||?||?||?||?||?

|-
|2007–08||rowspan="4"|Wolfsburg
VfL Wolfsburg
VfL Wolfsburg is a professional German association football club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, who play in the Bundesliga football competition. Wolfsburg have won the Bundesliga once in their history, in the 2008–09 season, and were DFB-Pokal runners-up in 1995. The current head coach is Felix...

||rowspan="4"|Bundesliga
Fußball-Bundesliga
The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...

||24||11||4||1||-||-||28||12
|-
|2008–09||25||28||3||4||3||3||31||35
|-
|2009–10
2009–10 Fußball-Bundesliga
The 2009–10 Fußball-Bundesliga was the 47th season of the Fußball-Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season commenced on 7 August 2009 with the traditional season opening match involving the defending champions VfL Wolfsburg and VfB Stuttgart. The last games were played on 8 May 2010...

||30||11||2||1||8||6||40||18
|-
|2010–11
2010–11 Fußball-Bundesliga
The 2010–11 Fußball-Bundesliga was the 48th season of the Fußball-Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season started on the weekend of 21 August 2010 with the traditional season opening match involving the defending champions and ended with the last games on 14 May 2011. The winter...

||28||9||3||1||-||-||31||10
92||34||?||?||?||?||?||?
9||0||?||?||?||?||?||?
51||17||?||?||?||?||?||?
107||59||12||7||11||9||130||75
259||110||12||7||11||9||282||126

Club

São Paulo FC
  • Campeonato Paulista
    Campeonato Paulista
    The Campeonato Paulista de Futebol Profissional da Primeira Divisão - Série A1, simply known as the Campeonato Paulista, is the top-flight professional football league in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The league is contested between 20 clubs and typically lasts from January to April...

    :
    2005
    Campeonato Paulista
    The Campeonato Paulista de Futebol Profissional da Primeira Divisão - Série A1, simply known as the Campeonato Paulista, is the top-flight professional football league in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The league is contested between 20 clubs and typically lasts from January to April...

  • Copa Libertadores: 2005
    Copa Libertadores 2005
    The 2005 Copa Libertadores was the 46th edition of the Copa Libertadores. The champion also qualified for the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship....

  • FIFA Club World Cup
    FIFA Club World Cup
    The FIFA Club World Cup is a football competition between the champion clubs from all six continental confederations.The first FIFA Club World Championship took place in Brazil in January 2000...

    :
    2005
    2005 FIFA Club World Championship Final
    The 2005 FIFA Club World Cup Final was an association football match between São Paulo of Brazil and Liverpool of England on 18 December 2005 at the International Stadium, Yokohama, Japan. It was the final match of the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship, a competition for the winners of the primary...


VFL Wolfsburg
VfL Wolfsburg
VfL Wolfsburg is a professional German association football club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, who play in the Bundesliga football competition. Wolfsburg have won the Bundesliga once in their history, in the 2008–09 season, and were DFB-Pokal runners-up in 1995. The current head coach is Felix...

  • Bundesliga
    Fußball-Bundesliga
    The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...

    :
    2008–09

Individual

  • Bola de Prata of Brazil
    Bola de Prata
    The Bola de Prata is a Primeira Liga award for the top scorer. In case two or more players have the same amount of goals, the award goes to the footballer with the least games played. It was first awarded has a prize in the 1952–53 season by sport newspaper A Bola.-List of winners:...

    : 2003
  • Footballer of the Year in Germany: 2009
  • Bundesliga Top Scorer
    Fußball-Bundesliga
    The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...

    : 2009

International goals

Results list Brazil's goal tally first.

External links

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