Player Profile

There are many observers of Brazilian football that considered ‘The Beast’ to be lucky to make it into Dunga’s World Cup squad.

He is used as Kaka’s understudy, but there are plenty of people who consider the two to be poles apart in ability. That said, Baptista has resurrected his career in fine fashion at Roma after moving from Real Madrid in 2008.

His spell at the Bernabeu was ultimately unsuccessful, although he did score the winner in a derby with Barcelona at the Nou Camp.

During his time at Real, he was loaned to Arsenal for a year where he managed just 11 league starts, but famously scored four goals at Anfield in a Carling Cup match.

He moved to Serie A in 2008 and played a key role in this campaign as Roma narrowly missed out on the league title and the Coppa Italia.

He made his international debut nine years ago, but this is his first appearance in a World Cup squad. He had been an infrequent squad member until Dunga took charge and his finest hour on the international stage came at the 2007 Copa America tournament, where he scored in the final against Argentina.

Used primarily as a substitute during qualifying for South Africa, he managed just 261 minutes of game time, but scored twice.

His first European club was Sevilla, where he scored 50 goals in 80 games. His past three clubs have all been based in capital cities - in Spain, England and Italy.