Nivaldo Batista Santana (born 23 June 1980), known simply as Nivaldo, 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 lea ...

who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for Lagarto Futebol Clube.

Football career

Born in

Feira de Santana Feira de Santana (; Portuguese language, Portuguese for "Saint Anne's Fair") is a city in Bahia, Brazil. It is the second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 616,272 according to Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, ...

Bahia Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...

, Nivaldo started playing with modest Brazilian clubs – he did represent

Coritiba Foot Ball Club Coritiba Foot Ball Club, commonly known as Coritiba and colloquially referred to as heCoxa, is a List of football clubs in Brazil, Brazilian football club from Curitiba, capital city of the States of Brazil, Brazilian state of Paraná s ...

on two occasions, but appeared rarely – and moved to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

with

C.F. Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses (), commonly known as Os Belenenses or simply Belenenses, is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 19,856 ...

in 2007, being an undisputed starter as the

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

team finished fifth and

qualified Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

for the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, with the defender scoring four goals, partnering future

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...

and

star

Rolando Rolando may refer to: Entertainment *'' Rolando'', a 2008 puzzle-adventure video game *'' Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid'', a 2009 puzzle-adventure video game *"Rolando", a song by Roland Kirk from the album ''Domino'' People *Rolando (gi ...

in the heart of the back four; on 28 February 2007, he also helped them come from behind against lowly

GD Bragança Grupo Desportivo de Bragança ''(abbreviated as GD Bragança)'' is a Portuguese Association football, football club based in Bragança Municipality, Bragança in the district of Bragança. Background GD Bragança currently plays in the Terceira ...

and reach the semi-finals of the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de 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 Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

following a 2–1 away win. Nivaldo joined

AS Saint-Étienne Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne Loire (), abbreviated as A.S.S.E. () and commonly known as Saint-Étienne, is a French professional football club based in Saint-Étienne, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The club was founded in 1933 and competes ...

for a price of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

3 million in summer 2007, but featured sparingly in his debut season. The following year he was loaned to

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

i side

Umm-Salal Sports Club Umm Salal Sport Club () is a Qatari professional association football, football club based in Umm Salal, that competes in the Qatar Stars League, the highest tier of Football in Qatar, Qatari football. Previously called Al-Tadamun Sport Club, Umm ...

, allegedly against his will. After being released in June 2009, Nivaldo joined Spanish club

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid (), is a Spanish professional List of football clubs in Spain, football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León that will compete from the 2025–26 season in the . The club ...

on a one-year contract. He made his

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

debut on 30 August in a 0–0 draw at

UD Almería Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish professional football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as ''Almería Club de Fútbol'' until 2001 ...

, being

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

in the 13th minute; he also received his marching orders when he scored his first goal on 4 October, helping the hosts draw 2–2 against

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

. In June 2010, after Valladolid's relegation, Nivaldo changed teams and countries again, signing a two-year contract with

Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club (; ''Moadon Kaduregel Maccabi Tel Aviv'') is an Israeli professional football club from Tel Aviv and part of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Sport Club. Founded in 1906 in Jaffa as the HaRishon Le Zion-Yafo Association, i ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

on a free transfer. On 1 August he netted his first goal, in a

Toto Cup The Israel Toto Cup (, ''Gvia Ha'Toto'') is an association football tournament that features clubs in the two highest divisions in Israel: the Israeli Premier League Ligat ha'Al, Ligat Ha'Al; and the Israeli 2nd division Liga Leumit. Both of the ...

win against Maccabi Netanya FC; thirteen days later, however, he was sidelined for two months due to a knee injury,Tel Aviv tussle costs Lala and Nivaldo
UEFA, 17 August 2010 which forced the club to sign

Savo Pavićević Savo Pavićević (Cyrillic: Саво Павићевић, ; born 11 December 1980) is a Serbian-born Montenegrin retired football defender. Club career Pavićević, after playing for almost a decade for Hajduk Kula, played for Vojvodina and for ...

as a cover.

Honours

Náutico *

Campeonato Pernambucano The Campeonato Pernambucano is the top-flight professional state football league in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. It is run by the Pernambuco Football Federation (FPF). History The first edition of the Campeonato Pernambucano was played i ...

: 2002 Coritiba *

Campeonato Paranaense The Campeonato Paranaense is the top-flight professional state football league in the Brazilian state of Paraná. It is run by the Paraná Football Federation (FPF). List of champions Notes * In 1924 Internacional and América merged in ...

: 2004 Ashdod *

Liga Leumit The Israeli Liga Leumit (, HaLiga HaLeumit, ) is the second division of the professional Israeli association football (soccer) league system. This second-tier league is placed directly below the Israeli Premier League. Structure There are 16 ...

: 2015–16

References

External links

*
CBF data
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nivaldo 1980 births Living people Brazilian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Clube Náutico Capibaribe players Coritiba Foot Ball Club players Fortaleza Esporte Clube players Paulista Futebol Clube players Primeira Liga players C.F. Os Belenenses players Rio Ave F.C. players Ligue 1 players AS Saint-Étienne players Qatar Stars League players Umm Salal SC players La Liga players Real Valladolid players Israeli Premier League players Liga Leumit players Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. players Maccabi Yavne F.C. players F.C. Ashdod players Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem F.C. players Lagarto Futebol Clube players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Qatar Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in France Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Israel Footballers from Feira de Santana 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen