Julio Baptista at Real Madrid Report

Julio Baptista

Júlio Baptista Biography

Júlio César Baptista is a twenty six year old player, who can play in defensive midfield, attacking midfield, or even striker positions. The Brazilian player has made a name for himself playing in three different countries: his home land of Brazil, England, and the country in which he currently plays, Spain.

Júlio Baptista started his senior football career at his local team, Säo Paulo FC, where he spent three years, making a total of seventy three appearances in the defensive midfield role, scoring ten goals.

In 2003 it was announced that Júlio Baptista would move to Spain to play for Sevilla FC. The talented player cost Sevilla an extremely small amount considering his ability, which came to just under the two million pounds mark. Baptista spent two years at the Spanish side, completing sixty three caps, and scoring an impressive thirty eight goals.

After his impressive display at Sevilla, Arsenal were extremely interested in the Brazilian, but Real Madrid managed to sign Baptista before the English side. He played for a year at the Spanish side in the 2005-06 season, making just shy of forty appearances, before being loaned out to Arsenal for the 2006-07 season, where he was an instant hit, playing thirty five games and scoring ten goals.

After his year in England, Júlio Baptista moved back to Real Madrid where he wears the number nineteen shirt, and he was called in to action immediately after returning to the Spanish champions, and in the 2007-08 season he played thirty one games, but scored a disappointing four goals in a season where Real Madrid won the Spanish league, La Liga.

Júlio Baptista is also a regular player for Brazil at international level. Since his international debut in 2001, Baptista has made forty one appearances, scoring ten goals for the 2002 World Cup champions, but he has to constantly play brilliantly, as he in competition with some fantastic players, such as Ronaldinho, Robinho and Diego for the attacking midfield role, which is where he prefers to play. This is most likely the reason why he was not included Brazil’s 2006 World Cup squad.

He is a very respected player, with Dunga saying the following about Júlio Baptista: "Technically, he brings the quality of a Brazilian player but he also brings his personality: he is very strong, very strong-willed. He is a winner, He can defend, he can attack and he can score goals and this is very important."