Anderson Rodney de Oliveira (born 23 December 1980, in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

), known as Babù, is a Brazilian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former player. He is currently an assistant coach at

Casertana Casertana Football Club is an Italian association football club based in Caserta, Campania. The club currently plays in Serie D. History The club was founded in 1908 as Robur Caserta and became known as Unione Sportiva Casertana from 1928 unt ...

Playing career

Early career

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

, Babù started his career off in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, being noted by Zdeněk Zeman in 2001 during a youth football tournament in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

; as Zeman was head coach of

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

side

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919, commonly referred to as Salernitana, is an Italian football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recentl ...

at the time, he had him signed for the club. He made a total of 27 appearances in 2 seasons, scoring 3 goals for the

Salerno Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...

based club. In 2003, he moved to recently relegated Serie A side

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

, where Babù played in 21 games, but failed to score a single goal in his single Serie B season with the club. In 2004, he was purchased by Serie A side

Lecce Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...

, rejoining Zeman as head coach, where he would spend the next 3 seasons. He managed to score 6 goals in 47 total appearances for the central

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

club. Following his longest spell with one team as a professional footballer, he was signed by then

side

Hellas Verona F.C. Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as Hellas Verona or simply Verona, is a professional Italian football club based in Verona, Italy, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A Championship in 1984–85. His ...

in 2007. He stayed for just under one season and made just 12 appearances scoring just once.

Catania

Following his short stint in Verona, he signed for Sicilian giants Calcio Catania, where he found it hard to find any playing time making just two substitute appearances, not scoring. Hence he was sent on loan to

Triestina Unione Sportiva Triestina Calcio 1918, commonly referred to as Triestina, is an Italian football club based in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Originally founded in 1918, the club has been re-established several times in its history. As of the ...

, where he would remain for the remaining six months of the season. He spent the entire 2008–09 season on loan at

Avellino Avellino () is a town and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

, in the Italian Serie B, yet he only managed seven appearances and a single goal. He was released by mutual consent in July 2009.

Coaching career

On 30 December 2022, Babù joined

as an assistant to newly appointed head coach Vincenzo Cangelosi, former long-time assistant of Zdeněk Zeman.

References

External links

Brazilian FA archive

Profile at Gazzetta.it
{{DEFAULTSORT:Babu Brazilian footballers Brazilian expatriate footballers Catania S.S.D. players U.S. Salernitana 1919 players Venezia F.C. players U.S. Lecce players Hellas Verona F.C. players U.S. Triestina Calcio 1918 players U.S. Avellino 1912 players Atletico Roma F.C. players Serie A players Serie B players Expatriate footballers in Italy Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Association football forwards Association football wingers Footballers from São Paulo 1980 births Living people