João Batista Inácio (born 22 March 1982), commonly known as Piá, is a Brazilian former

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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

Football career

Atalanta

Piá got his start by playing for

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

, where he made his Serie A debut on 2 December 2001, in the 4–2 defeat to

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Since 1 ...

. He scored only one goal in 23 appearances during his first years at the club. A loan spell came next as he joined up with then

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

side Ascoli for a season, where this spell proved to be quite a successful time, scoring 13 goals in 36 games.

Napoli

After his loan spell ended, Piá returned to Atalanta making 10 more appearances for the club, before

transfer Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies * ...

ring to

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

on a co-ownership deal in January 2005, for €750,000.Napoli Soccer S.p.A. ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 30 June 2005 (in Italian)
PDF purchased from Italian C.C.I.A.A.
/ref> He scored during his first official match for Napoli, in the 3–0 victory over

Giulianova Giulianova ( Giuliese: ' ) is a coastal town and ''comune'' in the province of Teramo, Abruzzo region, Italy. The ''comune'' also has city () status, thus also known as Città di Giulianova. Geography The town lies in the north of the Abruzzo regi ...

. Piá helped the club achieve the

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

championship, gaining promotion back into

. The co-ownership deal with Atalanta was resolved in favour of Napoli in early 2005, for another €600,000. Despite being a regular starter with the club, and signing a new deal in May 2006 that will keep him at the club until 2011, he became a surplus in Napoli's Serie A campaign, and thus he was loaned to

Treviso Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...

for another Serie B season. After just six months in Serie B with Treviso, he was loaned out to Serie A side

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

. In June 2008, he returned to Napoli to wear once again the Neapolitan colours, and made his debut in 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 ...

match against Vllaznia, where he scored a brace in the 3–0 win. In the return fixture, he scored the second goal in the 5–0 defeat of the Albanian club. In January 2010 he was loaned to

side

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

Portogruaro

On 31 August 2010, he left Napoli permanently to join newly promoted Serie B side

Portogruaro Portogruaro (, ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, northern Italy. The city is the centre of a district, made up of 11 ''comuni'', which form the Venezia Orientale with the San Donà di Piave district. History ...

Lega Pro clubs

In September 2011 he left for Italian third division club Pergocrema. After scoring 10 goals with Pergocrema, he signed with

Lecce Lecce (; ) is a city in southern Italy and capital of the province of Lecce. It is on the Salentine Peninsula, at the heel of the Italian Peninsula, and is over two thousand years old. Because of its rich Baroque architecture, Lecce is n ...

the following the season.

Name spelling

The nickname ''Piá'' is pronounced as it is spelled (in his native Portuguese). The accent would signify that the stress is on the second syllable. In

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

, the language of his current team, the phonetic equivalent is written ''Pià'', which is used for Italian television graphics.

Personal life

He is the older brother of Brazilian footballer

Joelson Joelson is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name * Joelson Santos Silva or Joelson (born 1980), Brazilian footballer *Joelson José Inácio (born 1983), Brazilian footballer People with t ...

, who also spent most of his career in Italy. His son

Samuele Inacio Samuele Inacio Piá (born 2 April 2008) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a forward for youth academy of German Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund. Early life Inacio was born on 2 April 2008 in Bergamo, Italy. He is the son of Br ...

, born in 2008, followed in his footsteps and is currently a youth player for

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

and the Italian youth representatives.

References

External links

Player profile
at AIC football website {{DEFAULTSORT:Pia Brazilian men's footballers Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Atalanta BC players Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players SSC Napoli players Treviso FBC 1993 players Catania FC players Torino FC players Portogruaro Calcio ASD players US Pergolettese 1932 players US Lecce players Taranto FC 1927 players SSD Varese Calcio players Aurora Pro Patria 1919 players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Serie D players Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Naturalised citizens of Italy Men's association football forwards Footballers from São Paulo (state) 1982 births Living people People from Ibitinga 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen