Sérgio Leandro Seixas Santos (; born 23 March 1979) known as Sérgio Batata or just Batata (, ) is a Brazilian-born Polish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a defender or

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career

In his youth Batata played for

Clube Atlético Mineiro Clube Atlético Mineiro (), commonly known as Atlético Mineiro or Atlético, and colloquially as Galo (, "Rooster"), is the largest professional football club based in the city of Belo Horizonte, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Mi ...

and Cruzeiro, before being brought to Poland by Antoni Ptak in 1997. He made his debut in Poland for ŁKS Łódź on 11 May 1997 against Polonia Warsaw. His career was mostly decided by Ptak, moving to clubs when it had been decided for him, which resulted in Batata playing for a total of 15 different Polish clubs. In 2003, Poland national team manager, Paweł Janas, was impressed with Batata that he wanted him to play for the Poland national team, meaning Batata had to apply for Polish citizenship. Accepting Polish citizenship would mean he'd have to rescind his Brazilian citizenship, and was given his citizenship in 2006. By this point Janas was no longer manager and Batata had suffered a few major injuries impacting his playing time. His two major career successes were winning the

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil ( en, Brazil Cup) is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de ...

in 1996 with Cruzeiro and the

Ekstraklasa Cup The Ekstraklasa Cup ( pl, Puchar Ekstraklasy) was an elimination tournament for Polish football clubs who play in the Polish 1st Division Ekstraklasa. The Ekstraklasa Cup was the fourth attempt at introducing a League Cup competition in Poland. T ...

in 2007–08 with Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski. Batata made over 300 appearances in Poland, playing for clubs such as ŁKS Łódź (three times), Piotrcovia Piotrków Trybunalski (three times), Polonia Gdańsk,

Lechia-Polonia Gdańsk Lechia-Polonia Gdańsk is a now defunct team which played in the Polish second division from 1998 to 2001. The team was created by a merger of Lechia Gdańsk and Polonia Gdańsk. History Pre-merger Polonia Gdańsk Polonia Gdańsk were fou ...

, GKS Katowice, Pogon Szczecin,

KSZO Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski KSZO Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski () is a Polish football club based in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, Poland. It was founded on August 11, 1929. History Initially, a club called ''Ostrovia'' existed in the city. It was established between 1922 and 1 ...

Widzew Łódź RTS Widzew Łódź () is a Polish football club based in Łódź. The club was founded in 1910. Its official colours are red and white, hence their nicknames ''Czerwona Armia'' (Red Army) and ''Czerwono-biało-czerwoni'' (Red-white-reds). History ...

, Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski,

Warta Poznań Warta Poznań () is a multi-sports club based in Poznań, Poland. The name means ''the Guard'' in Polish and also the name of the river Warta on which Poznań is located. Founded in 1912, the association football club are two-time winners of the ...

, Stal Niewiadów, Zawisza Bydgoszcz, Kotwica Kołobrzeg,

Motor Lublin Motor Lublin () is a Polish professional football team based in Lublin. The club was founded in December 1950 with their nickname ''The Yellow, White and Blues'' reflecting their official colours. They compete in II liga in the 2021–22 season. ...

, and Chełmianka Chełm.

Honours

Cruzeiro *

: 1996 Pogoń Szczecin * II liga: 2003–04 Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski *

: 2007–08

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Batata, Sérgio 1979 births Living people People from Montes Claros Footballers from Minas Gerais Men's association football midfielders Men's association football defenders Brazilian men's footballers Polish men's footballers Clube Atlético Mineiro players Cruzeiro Esporte Clube players ŁKS Łódź players SKS Stoczniowiec Gdańsk players Lechia Gdańsk players GKS Katowice players Pogoń Szczecin players KSZO Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski players TuS Koblenz players Widzew Łódź players Grêmio Esportivo Brasil players Dyskobolia Grodzisk Wielkopolski players Warta Poznań players Zawisza Bydgoszcz players Kotwica Kołobrzeg (football) players Motor Lublin players Chełmianka Chełm players Ekstraklasa players I liga players II liga players III liga players Naturalized citizens of Poland Naturalised association football players