Ânderson Corrêa Polga (born 9 February 1979) is a Brazilian 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 ...

who played as a centre-back. He spent most of his professional career with Sporting in Portugal, appearing in 327 official games (four goals) and winning four major titles. He started playing for Grêmio. Polga represented the Brazil national team at the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

, winning the competition.

Club career

Groomed at

Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense (), commonly known as Grêmio, is a Brazilian professional football club based in Porto Alegre, capital city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The club plays in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, ...

, Polga was born in

Santiago, Rio Grande do Sul Santiago (Spanish meaning Saint James) is a municipality of the western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is the capital of the microregion of Santiago. The population is 49,360 (2020 est.) in an area of . Its elevation is 409 ...

, being an important defensive unit from early on and helping the club to two trophies in 2001: the Rio Grande do Sul State Championship and the

Brazilian Cup 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 ...

. He moved to Sporting Clube de Portugal in 2003, becoming the first

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

champion ever to play in the country. Polga quickly became a defensive stalwart for the Lisbon-based side, helping them to the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

in his third year – after a run-in with coach

José Peseiro José Vítor dos Santos Peseiro (born 4 April 1960) is a Portuguese football manager and former player who played as a forward. He is the manager of the Nigeria national team. After an unassuming career as a player, he went on to coach sever ...

, he was an unused substitute in the decisive game, a 3–1 defeat against

PFC CSKA Moscow Professional Football Club CSKA (russian: link=yes, Профессиональный футбольный клуб – ЦСКА, derived from the historical name 'Центральный спортивный клуб армии', English: ...

– as well as to four consecutive Primeira Liga runner-up finishes. Not prone to score, Polga netted his first two goals for the ''Lions'' in the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League, in both group stage matches against FC Dynamo Kyiv. He played in 43 games in all competitions during the season and, in 2009–10, as Sporting could only finish fourth, he lost his starting position to Tonel – who previously had lost his to youth graduate

Daniel Carriço Daniel Filipe Martins Carriço (born 4 August 1988) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays mainly as a central defender. He spent most of his early professional career with Sporting CP, appearing in 154 official matches over four and ...

– but still managed to appear in 25 official matches (1,983 minutes). He left in June 2012 at the age of 33, and returned to Brazil. On 5 September 2012, Polga signed for Sport Club Corinthians Paulista who had just sold

Leandro Castán Leandro Castán da Silva (born 5 November 1986) is a Brazilian international footballer who plays as a centre-back. Club career Roma In the 2012–13 season, he was signed by Roma for a transfer fee of €5.5 million from Corinthians. He ea ...

and loaned

Marquinhos Marcos Aoás Corrêa (born 14 May 1994), known as Marquinhos, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain, which he captains, and the Brazil national team. Mainly a centre-back, he can ...

, both to

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

. At the end of the campaign, the club decided against renewing his contract.

International career

Polga made his debut for

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 ...

in 2002 against Bolivia, being subsequently summoned for that year's

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

. He made two complete group stage appearances for the eventual champions. After 2003, although he displayed good club form in several seasons, Polga was not recalled again.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Brazil's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Polga goal''.

Honours

Grêmio *

Campeonato Gaúcho The Campeonato Gaúcho Série A1 (Gaúcho Championship A1 Series or Série A1), officially named as Campeonato da Primeira Divisão de Futebol Profissional da FGF - Divisão Especial - Série A1 and commonly known as Campeonato Gaúcho or Gauchã ...

: 1999, 2001 *

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 P ...

: 2001 Sporting *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

: 2006–07, 2007–08; Runner-up 2011–12 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese football match played since 1979 between the winners of the Portuguese League (Primeira Liga) and Portuguese ...

: 2007,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

* Taça da Liga: Runner-up 2007–08, 2008–09 *

: Runner-up 2004–05 Corinthians * FIFA Club World Cup:

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

Brazil *

: 2002 Individual * Primeira Liga: Player of the Month May 2007

References

External links

*
PortuGOAL profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Polga, Anderson 1979 births Living people Sportspeople from Rio Grande do Sul Brazilian people of Portuguese descent Brazilian footballers Association football defenders Brazil international footballers FIFA World Cup-winning players 2002 FIFA World Cup players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense players Sport Club Corinthians Paulista players Primeira Liga players Sporting CP footballers Brazilian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal People from Santiago, Rio Grande do Sul