Dante Bonfim Costa Santos (Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈdɐ̃tʃi]; born 18 October 1983), commonly known as Dante is a Brazilian footballer who currently plays for Bayern Munich as a central defender but has previously also been used as defensive midfielder or a left fullback.^[1][2] A late bloomer in the game, his power, strength, tackling and aerial prowess have seen him regarded among Europe's finest central defenders.^[3]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Dante joined Juventude's youth system in 2001 and by 2002 became a part of the club's first team setup. In 2004, he made his move to European football, signing for Lille in France. After two seasons with club where he only featured in 12 league games, Dante moved to Belgium singing for Charleroi SC in 2006. After a successful campaign in the Belgian Pro League for Charleroi where he made 27 appearances and helped the club to a respectable fifth place finish, he moved across the country to Standard Liège.^[4] Dante had a successful debut season with the Belgian giants as Standard were crowned league champions, the Brazilian defender proving to be an integral member, missing just one league game, of the championship squad.^[5] In his second season with Standard, he featured in the first 15 league games of the campaign before interest from Germany sent the player to the Bundesliga.^[6]

Borussia Mönchengladbach[link]

Dante signed for German side Borussia Mönchengladbach from Standard Liège on 27 December 2008 for an undisclosed fee, signing a contract with the club until summer 2013.^[6] Dante made his debut for the club on 20 March 2009, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 1–0 loss to fellow strugglers VfL Bochum.^[7] His first goal for the club came against eventual champions VfL Wolfsburg on 11 April but it came in a losing effort as Gladbach fell 2–1 thanks to a late strike by defender Sascha Riether.^[8] The Brazilian scored a dramatic late winner against Energie Cottbus on 13 May, heading in a cross from winger Marko Marin to give the club a 1–0 win in the 91st minute.^[9] On the final day of the Bundesliga season on 23 May 2009, Dante scored Gladbach's only goal in a 1–1 draw with Borussia Dortmund, a point which meant that the club avoided immediate relegation back to the 2. Bundesliga.^[10]

Dante during his time with Gladbach

In the opening fixture of the 2009–10 Bundesliga campaign on 9 August 2009, Dante received a red card for a bad foul as Mönchengladbach relinquished a 3–0 lead against VfL Bochum, drawing 3–3.^[11] He netted his first goal of the campaign on 31 October, heading home a corner in the 76th minute to draw the game level at 2–2 and an 82nd minute strike from Rob Friend handed Gladbach a 3–2 victory over Hamburg.^[12] On 9 April 2010, Dante headed in a free-kick from Juan Arango to double Gladbach's lead, resulting in a 2–0 defeat of Eintracht Frankfurt that all but secured Bundesliga survival.^[13]

The 2010–11 campaign proved to be another difficult campaign for Gladbach. Dante only featured in 17 league games as he battled against persistent injury and the club finished in 16th place, the relegation play-off spot.^[14] He did though play the full ninety minutes in each play-off match against Bochum as Borussia Mönchengladbach managed a 2–1 aggregate victory to remain in the German top flight for the 2011–12 season.^[15]

The following season proved much more successful as Dante featured in 38 games in all competitions, playing the full ninety minutes in each game. In January 2012, Dante hinted that he could leave the club before his contract runs out in June 2014, revealing to the press that he desired to play for a top club in Germany, singling out Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen.^[16] Dante was influential as the club made a run to the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal where the club lost 4–2 on penalties to Bayern Munich on 21 March 2012, with Dante and Patrick Herrmann missing their penalties to give Bayern a spot in the final with champions Borussia Dortmund.^[17]

Bayern Munich[link]

On 26 April 2012, he agreed to join Bayern Munich for the start of the 2012–13 season for an estimated fee of €4.7 million.^[18] He made his competitive debut for the Bavarian giants in the Bundesliga on 25 August 2012, as Bayern cruised to a 3–0 opening day victory over promoted side SpVgg Greuther Furth.^[19] He scored his first competitive goal for the team in a 5–0 thrashing of Hannover 96 on 24 November 2012.^[20] Dante made an immediate impact at Bayern, earning a place in the starting XI, forming partnerships with the interchanging Holger Badstuber, Daniel van Buyten and Jérôme Boateng in the center of defense.^[21] Following his impressive start with Die Roten, Heynckes told media that Dante was one of the first names on the team sheet and club captain Phillip Lahm supported the manager's sentiments, stating that, "Dante is one of the best defenders I've ever played with."^[22] He secured his first league title since moving to Germany after a 1–0 defeat of Eintracht Frankfurt on 6 April 2013 and was seen celebrating with the supporters in the stands following the result.^[23][24]

Trivia[link]

In his time at Borussia Mönchengladbach, Dante was well known for his hair, becoming a cult hero with Borussia fans regularly sporting large afro wigs as an homage to their favorite player.^[25] Bayern fans quickly continued this tradition after the defender's move to Munich.^[26]

International career[link]

Dante received his first call-up to the Brazilian national team on 21 January 2013 by returning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari to be part of the squad for a friendly versus England, on 6 February at Wembley Stadium.^[27] He started the game, which England won 2–1 after goals from Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard.^[28] On 22 June 2013, he scored his first international goal in the final group game of the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup against Italy at the stroke of half time, after coming on as a substitute for David Luiz on the 33rd minute.^[29]

Career statistics[link]

Club statistics[link]

As of 4 June 2013 (2013-06-04)^{[update][2][30]}

• 1.^ State championship
• 2.^ League playoffs
• 3.^ 2009 Relegation playoff, 2012 DFL-Supercup, 2013 DFL-Supercup, 2013 FIFA Club World Cup.

International goals[link]

Scores and results list Brazil's goal tally first.

No	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	22 June 2013	Itaipava Arena Fonte Nova, Salvador, Brazil	Italy	1–0	4–2	2013 FIFA Confederations Cup

Honours[link]

Standard Liège

• Belgian Pro League: 2007–08
• Belgian Supercup: 2008

Bayern Munich

• DFL-Supercup: 2012
• Bundesliga: 2012–13
• UEFA Champions League: 2012–13
• DFB-Pokal: 2012–13

Brazil

• FIFA Confederations Cup: 2013

References[link]

External links[link]

• Dante at fussballdaten.de (German){{#invoke:Namespace detect|main}}
• Dante French league stats at LFP.fr (French){{#invoke:Namespace detect|main}}

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