“Gilberto” da Silva Melo
Gilberto da Silva Melo, more commonly known as Gilberto, is a retired Brazilian professional footballer. He played at left back for the majority of his career. Gilberto’s brothers Nildeson and Nélio are also footballers. Having started his career in his native Brazil, playing for América-RJ, Flamengo and Cruzeiro, then he moved for one season to Italy club Internazionale. However, he soon left for Vasco da Gama. He also played with Grêmio and São Caetano. He played in Europe for Hertha BSC from 2004 to 2008 and in the season 2008-2009 he played in Premiere League for Tottenham Hotspur.
Did you Know?
At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Brazil participated for the 18th time in the event. The country remained as the only national team to have participated in every installment of the FIFA World Cup. The Brazilian team played until the quarter-finals, where they were defeated by France, finishing the tournament in the fifth place — for the third time in history (1954 and 1986 were the previous instances).
Did you Know?
In 1998 was the first time that Gilberto had training with the national team, after a successful season. He played for Brazil in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and scored against Japan in the group stage, his first goal for the national side, having made his debut for the team against Nigeria on 11 June 2003. Gilberto also featured as Brazil’s first choice left back in the Copa America 2007. Due to club performance, he lost his place on the national team to Kléber, and then to André Santos, which both of them selected to 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and left Gilberto out. However, he has been called up in February 2010 to a friendly match against Republic of Ireland since returned to Brazil. But he played as unused bench as Michel Bastos’s backup. Moreover, most of the 22-men squad for the Ireland match (except Adriano and Carlos Eduardo), plus Elano, Luís Fabiano (who both pull out from the friendly by injury) and Heurelho Gomes, became the provisional 23-men squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. And 7 more players were call-up as backup players. He played twice for the Seleção at the tournament, both as sub, including the match losing to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. After the dismiss of Dunga, he never received any call-up again, and one year later, in 2011 he retired from the international football.
