William Rocha Batista (born 27 July 1980) is a former

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian 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 ...

who played as an

attacking 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 ...

or forward.

Career

Batista started his career in the small

ian club

Portuguesa Santista Portuguesa is a Portuguese, Catalan, and Spanish feminine adjective meaning "Portuguese". It may also refer to: Places *Portuguesa (state), one of the 23 states of Venezuela * Portuguesa (Rio de Janeiro), a neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ...

at the age of 16, and after several seasons there he moved to another Brazilian Third Division club, União Barbarense. Batista then signed for

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

n side

Levski Sofia Levski Sofia ( bg, Левски София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 ...

, but having failed to secure a regular place in the first team he moved to the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

club

SFC Opava Slezský FC Opava is a professional football club based in Opava, Czech Republic. The club plays in the Czech National Football League, the second of Czech football after being relegated from the Czech First League at the end of the 2020–21 seas ...

in 2005. That winter, Batista signed a contract with the

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

club Karpaty Lviv. In a successful two-year spell, Batista regularly featured among the league's top scorers, with ten goals from 24 games in the 2006–2007 season. During the summer of 2007, there was speculation that

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was officia ...

was interested in his services, to which Batista responded that he was under contract to Karpaty and had no desire to move. However, in January 2008, Batista signed for

FC Kharkiv FC Kharkiv ( ua, ФК "Харків") was a professional football club based in Kharkiv, Ukraine. After 2009–10 Ukrainian First League season the club was relegated to the Ukrainian Second League. However, they failed attestation when they su ...

in a UAH 7.6 million joint deal with Karpaty team-mate Alyaksey Suchkow. For the 2008–09 Season, Batista played 9 games and scored 2 goals. After the

's last match of the year against Metalurh, the head coach

Mykhailo Stelmakh Mykhailo Stelmakh (Ukrainian: Миха́йло Пана́сович Сте́льмах, 11 (24) May 1912, Diakivtsi, Vinnytsia Oblast - September 27, 1983, Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, USSR) was a Ukrainian novelist, poet, and playwright. Member of t ...

stated that he would be forming a completely new team for the second part of the 2008–09 season. After going on trial to

FK Baku FC Baku ( az, "Bakı" Futbol Klubu) is an Azerbaijani football club based in Baku that has been an amateur club since 2016. Prior to that, Baku played 18 seasons in the Azerbaijan Premier League, winning the championship twice and earning the Na ...

, Baptista impressed the club and the vice-president of Baku Zeynal Mamedov said that "Batista will play on the basis of loan until the end of this season. He set a good impression during the exhibition games to head coach Gjoko Hadžievski, who would like the transfer to be completed."Батиста останется в "Бакы"
– February 5, 2009 In August 2009, Batista accepted an offer to return to Karpaty Lviv.

References

External links

Profile on the official Karpaty Lviv site

(Video) April 2010, Batista scores a winner in a home match against champions Dynamo Kyiv

Profile at LevskiSofia.info

Player Profile
at Soccerway {{DEFAULTSORT:Batista, William 1980 births Living people Brazilian footballers Brazilian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Azerbaijan Expatriate footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate footballers in Ukraine Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Expatriate footballers in the Czech Republic Associação Atlética Portuguesa (Santos) players PFC Levski Sofia players PFC Spartak Pleven players SFC Opava players FC Kharkiv players FC Karpaty Lviv players FC Baku players FC Obolon-Brovar Kyiv players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Czech First League players Ukrainian Premier League players Azerbaijan Premier League players Footballers from São Paulo Association football forwards