Grafite

Edinaldo Batista Libânio (born 2 April 1979), commonly known as Grafite (pronounced ), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a striker.

He currently works as a pundit for TV Globo and SporTV.

His talent as football player however earned him his first professional contract in 1999 with the Matão 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 in the neighboring town of Araraquara – 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.

There he scored 5 goals in 22 league matches, which did not aid in preventing relegation to Série B.

However, he attracted the attention of Grêmio Porto Alegre, another first division club, which hired him for a transfer fee of one million Real – of this sum Santa Cruz had to forward about 700,000 real to Matonense.

Luck was not with him in Porto Alegre.

Right at the beginning of the year he incurred 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 club the team was eliminated by Paraguay's Club Olimpia in the semi-finals of the Libertadores.

He played six more Série A 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 transferred to FC Seoul, then known as Anyang LG Cheetahs, in the South Korean K League.

It was a brief, undistinguished stint and both, player and club, were happy to part ways by mid-year.

Back in Brazil Grafite joined first division club Goiás EC in the city of Goiânia.

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 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, 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 as best player on his position over the season.

At the beginning of 2004 Grafite was signed by Brazilian top-side São Paulo FC, where he won the 2005 São Paulo State Championship, his first title.

In the same month Grafite made it worldwide 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 whom he accused of racial slurs.

Together with the Argentine midfielder Carlos Arano, 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 Brazil national football team, Carlos Alberto Parreira to join the Seleção for the first time when it lined up for a friendly against Guatemala on 27 April in São Paulo's Pacaembu 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 against Liverpool, which São Paulo won 1–0.

In 2005, Grafite won the Copa Libertadores and the Club World Championship with São Paulo FC.

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.

With German club VfL Wolfsburg he won the 2008–09 Bundesliga, and was the league's top scorer as well as Germany's Player of the Year.

Born in Jundiaí, Edinaldo Libânio grew up in modest circumstances in the hinterland of the State of São Paulo.

He made his first money with the door to door sales of rubbish bags.