Cristiano dos Santos Rodrigues (born 3 June 1981), commonly known as Cristiano, is a retired

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ian

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Biography

Early career

Cristiano began his club career with Dutch club NAC Breda. He signed his first professional contract with Breda at age 16. Cristiano was impressive, without being a prolific goal scorer and spent four years with Breda before moving to fellow Dutch side Roda JC. Cristiano's performances with Breda impressed Roda manager Wiljan Vloet who was desperate to bring the Brazilian to the club. Cristiano averaged 0.34 goals a game in his four-year stint with Roda.

FC Basel

After eight seasons in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, Cristiano sought a new challenge in a foreign country and jumped at the opportunity to join

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giants

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

for their 2006–07 season under head coach Christian Gross. He played his team debut on 26 August 2006 in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

third round match against local club FC Liestal. Cristiano scored three goals for his new club, during the first 27 minutes of the game, as Basel advanced with the end score 6–1 to the next round. After playing in a test game, in which he also scored twice, Cristiano played his domestic league debut for the club in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park on 10 September as Basel won 2–1 against

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. He played his next match four days later on 14 September in the 2006–07 UEFA Cup first round first leg game against Rabotnički. In this match he also scored two goals as Basel won 6–2. Despite this very good start with his new club, Cristiano struggled to command a regular starting spot in the team. After the winter break, he went on loan back to the Netherlands and joined Willem II of

Tilburg Tilburg () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. With a population of 22 ...

. His loan spell with Willem II was very successful, scoring 5 goals in 12 appearances. Willem II made Cristiano's move permanent at the end of the 2006–07 season. During his time with Basel Cristiano played a total of 20 games for the team scoring a total of 11 goals. Seven of these games were in the

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

, one in the

, six in the

2006–07 UEFA Cup The 2006–07 UEFA Cup was the 36th edition of the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Cup, Europe's second-tier club association football, football tournament. On 16 May 2007, at Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Sevilla FC, Sevilla won their second consecu ...

and six were friendly games. He scored one goal in the domestic league, three in the domestic cup, two in the UEFA Cup and the other five were scored during the test games.

Willem II

Cristiano was unable to capture his form from his loan spell the previous season. Despite being well known in the Netherlands, he received tentative interest from other Dutch clubs due to his non-EU status requiring a high minimum salary, and began seeking options of regular football elsewhere.

Adelaide United

Cristiano moved to Australia to join

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

side Adelaide United at the start of the 2008–09 season. Adelaide had lost Nathan Burns and

Bruce Djite Bruce José Djité (French pronunciation: ; born 25 March 1987) is an Australian executive and former association football (soccer) player. he is South Australian executive director of the Property Council of Australia. Djite made a name for ...

in the off-season and were in desperate need for a permanent striker. After scoring on his debut in a pre-season match, Cristiano made his A-League debut in a 1–0 victory over Perth Glory. Cristiano was impressive in his debut, setting up the winning goal scored by Travis Dodd. Cristiano scored his first competitive goal for Adelaide United in Round three against Wellington Phoenix at

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. Cristiano finished with a brace in a 3–0 victory. After helping Adelaide United become the first Australian side to reach the semi-finals of the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

, he scored a brace days later to help the Reds to a 2–0 victory over reigning premiers Newcastle Jets. Cristiano scored his fifth goal in seven A-League matches by getting on the score sheet in a 3–3 draw against Central Coast. He scored the only goal of the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup fifth place play off against

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club Al Ahly the impressive twenty yard strike was awarded 'goal of the tournament'. In the 2008–09 Grand Final against Melbourne Victory, Cristiano was controversially red carded in the 10th minute. However, this red card was rescinded from his record. He was released from Adelaide after their 2010

Asian Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious cl ...

campaign after they were knocked out of the round of 16.

Tarxien Rainbows

During the 2010–11 summer transfer window he signed a two-year contract until 2011–12, with Maltese Premier League club Tarxien Rainbows.

White City

It was announced on 7 June 2011 that Cristiano would move back to Adelaide and sign with South Australian Premier League side White City FC with an aim to further his career in coaching and to aim for re-signing with his former

club, Adelaide United. Cristiano made his debut for White City FC in a 3–2 loss to Enfield City. He also scored from a header and was later sent off.

Olimpia

On 15 August 2013, Cristiano arrived in Honduran club Olimpia as a last-minute reinforcement on a free transfer. He failed to make his debut under then head coach Danilo Tosello and in early-2014 his contract was terminated.

Personal life

Following his retirement from playing, Cristiano settled in Australia and is employed by

Football South Australia Football South Australia (FSA) is the governing body of association football, soccer in the state of South Australia. It was established in 2006 under the name Football Federation South Australia (FFSA), which succeeded the former organisation, ...

. His son Raphael Borges Rodrigues is also a professional footballer.

Career statistics

(''Correct as of 1 January 2009'') ¹ – includes

final series statistics
² – includes

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...

statistics;

statistics are included in season commencing after group stages (i.e. 2008 ACL in 2008–09 A-League season etc.)

References

External links

Adelaide United profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cristiano 1981 births Living people Brazilian men's footballers NAC Breda players Roda JC Kerkrade players FC Basel players Willem II Tilburg players Footballers from Rio de Janeiro (city) Eredivisie players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Australia Swiss Super League players Adelaide United FC players Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland A-League Men players Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands FK Beograd (Australia) players Men's association football forwards 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen