Alex Rodrigo Dias da Costa

Alex Rodrigo Dias da Costa was born in Niterói, Brazil, is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Paris Saint-Germain F.C. and the Brazil national football team as a centre-back and has the ability to score goals with his strong foot. He is popular known as Alex and started his football career with Santos of Brazil in 2001. He made his first team debut in 2002 for Santos and after some brilliant performances, Alex joined the English Club Chelsea in 2004 on the recommendation of famed PSV and Chelsea scout Piet de Visser. In the season 2004-05 he officially joined PSV and won a second straight Dutch league championship with PSV in the season 2005-06. During the season 2007-12, Alex initially played with a number of clubs and finally signed on with Paris Saint-Germain on January 27th 2012. Internationally, he made his debut for Brazil against Mexico in 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup. He also played for Brazil U-23 team, and was member of the Brazil squad that won the Copa América 2007 with a 3–0 victory over arch-rivals Argentina in the final. On 11 May, he was called up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup squad as one of the seven backup players.