Dionatan do Nascimento Teixeira (24 July 1992 – 5 November 2017) was a

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-born

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

n 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. Teixeira began playing football with local side Londrina EC in Brazil before he was given the opportunity to play in Europe with

n side MFK Košice in 2008. He played in the youth teams at Košice and went on trials with a number of clubs in England. A failure to gain a work permit ended any chances of him joining an English club, and after playing on loan for Slovan Bratislava in 2011–12 he was released by Košice. After briefly playing amateur football he moved on to Baník Ružiná and then to

Slovak Super Liga The Slovak Super Liga is the top level football league in Slovakia, currently known as the Fortuna Liga due to a sponsorship arrangement. It was formed in 1993 following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The record for most titles is eleven, he ...

side Dukla Banská Bystrica. In 2013 Teixeira was granted Slovak citizenship and after impressing Stoke City whilst on trial he joined them on a three-year contract in June 2014. However, he failed to make any impact at Stoke and left in January 2017 and later joined Moldovan side

Sheriff Tiraspol Fotbal Club Sheriff (russian: ФК Шериф Тирасполь), commonly known as Sheriff Tiraspol or simply Sheriff, is a Moldovan professional football club based in Tiraspol, a city located in the unrecognised breakaway state of Transnis ...

Career

Early career

Teixeira began his career with local team Londrina EC in his native Brazil. At the age of 16 he decided to move into European football and earned a youth contract with Slovak side MFK Košice. In 2009, Teixeria went on trial with a number of English teams including

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

, Newcastle United and Manchester City. He returned to Košice in April 2009 and made his first team debut on 18 April 2009 against

MFK Dubnica FK Dubnica is a Slovak football club, playing in the city of Dubnica nad Váhom. History FK Dubnica was founded in 1926 and spent much of its early years playing in the regional Czechoslovakian leagues until 1977 where they were finally pro ...

. After a lack of opportunity at Košice he went on loan to Slovan Bratislava for the 2011–12 season but spent his time in Bratislava playing in the B team. He left Košice in the summer of 2012 and after spending time playing for local amateur side Slovan Čeľadice he joined 2. Liga side Baník Ružiná. In March 2013 he joined

side Dukla Banská Bystrica. In January 2014, Teixeira had a trial at

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

and at Stoke City in March 2014.

Stoke City

On 11 June 2014, he signed a three-year contract with Stoke City, with Chief Executive Tony Scholes saying — "We have been following Dionatan's progress for some time and we're delighted to have secured his services because there's no doubt he's a talented player with a great deal of potential." Stoke manager

Mark Hughes Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh football coach and former player who is the manager of Bradford City. During his playing career he usually operated as a forward or midfielder. He had two spells at Manchester United, an ...

stated that whilst on trial Teixeira reminded him of

Ryan Nelsen Ryan William Nelsen (born 18 October 1977) is a former New Zealand professional football player and former head coach of Major League Soccer side Toronto FC. Nelsen commonly played as a defender, and his professional career began in 1995. He ...

who played for Hughes at

. —"Dionatan came in on trial and I've done that before with the likes of Chris Samba and Ryan Nelsen, who we had the opportunity to bring in at Blackburn. When you can look at players close up you get a better impression of what their capabilities are. We did it with Dionatan and he looked really good". Teixeira's start to his Stoke City career was hampered after he broke his foot in training which ruled him out for most of the 2014–15 season. He made his

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

debut for Stoke on 21 February 2015, coming on as a substitute in a 2–1 victory against Aston Villa. On 3 October 2015, he joined

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

side Fleetwood Town on loan. He spent three months with the club making ten appearances before returning to Stoke. Teixeira again featured just once as a substitute for Stoke in 2015–16, away at Bournemouth in February 2016. In May 2016 he had a trial at MLS side Orlando City. Teixeira's contract with Stoke was terminated in January 2017 after making just two appearances as substitute.

Sheriff Tiraspol

On 17 February 2017, Teixeira signed for Moldovan club

Death

On 5 November 2017, Teixeira suffered a fatal

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

Londrina Londrina (, literally "Little London") is a city located in the north of the state of Paraná, South Region, Brazil, and is away from the state capital, Curitiba. It is the second largest city in the state and fourth largest in the southern regi ...

, Brazil.

International career

Teixeira gained a Slovak passport in August 2013. After that he was a regular member of the Slovak U21 team.

Personal life

His younger brother Marcão also became a professional footballer.

Career statistics

SV Mattersburg vs FK Dukla Banská Bystrica 2013-06-21 (18)

Source:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Teixeira, Dionatan 1992 births 2017 deaths Sportspeople from Londrina Slovak footballers Slovakia youth international footballers Brazilian footballers Brazilian expatriate footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in England Association football defenders Londrina Esporte Clube players FC VSS Košice players ŠK Slovan Bratislava players TJ Baník Ružiná players FK Dukla Banská Bystrica players Stoke City F.C. players Fleetwood Town F.C. players Slovak Super Liga players 2. Liga (Slovakia) players Expatriate footballers in Slovakia Slovak people of Brazilian descent Slovak expatriate sportspeople in England Slovak expatriate sportspeople in Moldova Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Moldova Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Slovakia Premier League players English Football League players Moldovan Super Liga players FC Sheriff Tiraspol players Naturalized citizens of Slovakia