Grafite

Early career

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. 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…

On 2 March 2010, after almost five years since his debut for the national team, he made his second appearance, coming on as a substitution for Adriano in the game against Republic of Ireland at the Emirates Stadium in London. He was called up to the squad after Luís Fabiano was injured. On 11 May, Dunga named Grafite among his 23-man 2010 FIFA World Cup squad. Grafite made one appearance at the tournament, replacing Luís Fabiano for the last five minutes of the 0–0 draw with Portugal in the last Group match.

Club

State League

International

Score and result list Brazil's goal tally first, score column indicates score after Grafite goal.

São Paulo

Copa Libertadores: 2005 FIFA Club World Cup: 2005 VfL Wolfsburg

Bundesliga: 2008–09 Al Ahli'

UAE President's Cup: 2012–13 UAE League: 2013–14 UAE Super Cup: 2013 UAE League Cup: 2011–12, 2013–14 Santa Cruz

Campeonato Pernambucano: 2016 Copa do Nordeste: 2016 Individual

Bola de Prata: 2003 Bundesliga Player of the Month: March 2009 Bundesliga top scorer: 2008–09 VDV Bundesliga Player of the Season: 2008–09 kicker Bundesliga Team of the Season: 2008–09 Goal of the Year (Germany): 2009 Footballer of the Year (Germany): 2009