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Bilica
	Bilica in 2013
Personal information
Full name	Fábio Alves da Silva
Date of birth	4 January 1979 (age 45)
Place of birth	Campina Grande, Brazil
Height	1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s)	Centre-back
Senior career*
Years	Team
1996–1998	Vitória
1998–2002	Venezia
2002–2004	Palermo
2003	→ Brescia (loan)
2003–2004	→ Ancona (loan)
2004	Goiás
2004	Grêmio
2005	1. FC Köln
2006–2007	Istres
2007–2008	Universitatea Cluj
2008–2009	Sivasspor
2009–2012	Fenerbahçe
2012–2015	Elazığspor
2017	Auto Esporte
2017	São Paulo Crystal
2018	Atlético-PB
2019	Batatais
2019	Miramar
2020	América-SE
2020–?	São Francisco-AC
International career
1999–2000	Brazil U-23
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Fábio Alves da Silva (born 4 January 1979), commonly known as Bilica, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back.^[1]

Club career

Bilica is infamous for his statement during his time at Venezia when during a game against Brescia he claimed that he would break the legs of Roberto Baggio. Baggio wound up getting injured and stayed on the sidelines for several months, but the tackle was made by Antonio Marasco.^[2]

While playing for Venezia during the 1999–2000 Serie A season, Bilica replaced the goalkeeper who had been sent off and then proceeded to save a penalty from A.C. Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko.

Bilica made his debut at Bahia. He then later played for clubs including Palermo, 1. FC Köln and many more.

In 2004, Bilica was approached by Goiás Esporte Clube, as part of the manager Celso Roth's preparations for the 2004 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. However, the negotiations with the Goiânia club did not go as expected.^[3] Bilica was then signed by the Porto Alegre club Grêmio.^[4] At Grêmio, Fábio Bilica was part of the squad that was relegated to the Série B. In a disastrous campaign, Grêmio was virtually relegated with four rounds to go to the end of the season, and Bilica was dismissed by the team after problems with the club, such as a verbal altercation with heckling fans, arguments with the coach Cláudio Duarte, and for the poor campaign and financial conditions of the club.^[5]^[6] Bilica was released by the club after the end of the season, amidst problems with the club president, Paulo Odone, and allegations of indiscipline and improper conduct.^[7]

In November 2007, he arrived in Romania, at Universitatea Cluj, there he played in 17 matches and in the last game of the season which was the Cluj derby against CFR Cluj, Bilica fouled an opponent in his own penalty area, so CFR Cluj scored their winning goal. After this match, it was suspected that he did not play fair against CFR Cluj, helping them to win the Romanian championship instead of Steaua Bucharest.^[8] He later stated in an interview that he was contacted by some players from CFR Cluj with three days before the match who tried to convince him to "take it easy" against them, telling him they have a lot of money for him, but he refused.^[9]

Bilica signed for Sivasspor in July 2008 and caught the attention of Fenerbahçe. He later signed with Fenerbahçe on 8 June 2009 in exchange for Yasin Çakmak and €1.5 million.

International career

Bilica was a member of the Brazil Olympic team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney where he reached the quarter finals, Brazil lost to Cameroon at the quarter finals. He played in the Olympic team alongside much more famous players as Ronaldinho, Lúcio and Fábio Aurélio.