Full name Fábio Alves da Silva Playing position Apps (Gls) Weight 80 kg | Years Team Height 1.87 m Career start 1996 | |
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Date of birth (1979-01-04) 4 January 1979 (age 38) Current team Auto Esporte Clube (Defender) Similar Capone, Cristian Baroni, Gökçek Vederson, Mehmet Topuz, Alexsandro de Souza | ||
Fábio Alves da Silva (born 4 January 1979), commonly known as Bilica, is a retired Brazilian footballer who played as a defender.
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Club career
Bilica is infamous for his statement during his time at Venezia when he claimed that he would break the legs of Roberto Baggio, who was playing for Brescia at that time. Baggio wound up getting injured and stayed on the sidelines for several months.
Bilica made his debut at Bahia. He then later played for clubs including Palermo, Köln and many more.
In 2004, Bilica was approached by Goiás Esporte Clube, as part of the manager Celso Roth's preparations for the 2004 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. However, the negotiations with the Goiânia club did not go as expected. Bilica was then signed by the Porto Alegre club Grêmio. At Grêmio, Fábio Bilica was part of the squad that was relegated to the Série B. In a disastrous campaign, Grêmio was virtually relegated with four rounds to go to the end of the season, and Bilica was dismissed by the team after problems with the club, such as a verbal altercation with heckling fans, arguments with the coach Cláudio Duarte, and for the poor campaign and financial conditions of the club. Bilica was released by the club after the end of the season, amidst problems with the club president, Paulo Odone, and allegations of indiscipline and improper conduct.
In November 2007, he arrived in Romania, at Universitatea Cluj; there he played in 17 matches; he was appreciated, but in the last game of the season against rivals from CFR Cluj, Bilica fouled an opponent in his own penalty area, so CFR Cluj scored their winning goal. After this match, it was suspected that he did not play fair against CFR Cluj, helping them to win the Romanian championship instead of Steaua Bucharest.
Bilica signed for Sivasspor in July 2008 and caught the attention of Fenerbahçe. He later signed with Fenerbahçe on 8 June 2009 in exchange for Yasin Çakmak and €1.5 million.
International career
Bilica was a member of the Brazil Olympic team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney where he reached the quarter finals, Brazil lost to Cameroon at the quarter finals. He played in the Olympic team alongside much more famous players as Ronaldinho, Lúcio and Fábio Aurélio.
Trivia
While playing for Venezia during the 1999–2000 Serie A season, Bilica replaced the goalkeeper who had been sent off and then proceeded to save a penalty from A.C. Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko.