Unforgettable Moments
It was spring in Wolfsburg, April 4, 2009.
Crocuses poked their heads out beside the walkway to the stadium, but the idyll ended a few hundred metres later. The Volkswagen Arena was sold out. Thirty thousand spectators wanted to see the giant duel with Bayern Munich.
Down in the catacombs sat a young man whose name everyone would know in a few hours: Edinaldo Batista Libânio.
He heard none of the spring above. He sat calmly in front of his locker, left boot first, then right.
“Bayern are strong, but we are strong too,” he told himself.
Born in the backlands of the São Paulo
Born in the backlands of the São Paulo metropolis, Edinaldo had once earned money selling rubbish bags.
metropolis, Edinaldo had once earned money selling rubbish bags. At 20 he signed his first professional contract and received the nickname that would make history ten years later. His first coach thought the lanky Brazilian, 1.89 metres and only 78 kilos, looked like the graphite core of a pencil. Hence: Grafite.
Dramatic Turning Points
Grafite smiled as he walked onto the pitch
Grafite smiled as he walked onto the pitch surrounded by his team-mates.
surrounded by his team-mates. Thirty thousand fans roared when kick-off came at 3:30. Wolfsburg started well and went ahead; Bayern, famed for their attacking football, looked strangely overwhelmed. In 2007 Grafite had still been playing for Le Mans in France while, far to the west, Bayern were heading into a stormy post-World Cup period.
Michael Ballack had gone, the Double-Double years were over, and Felix Magath had left Bayern to become managing director of Wolfsburg in June 2007. Within two years he signed more than 30 players for 55 million euros.
One of them was the largely unknown Brazilian brought to Germany on the final day of the 2007 summer window.
Five hundred and eighty-one days later that signing
Five hundred and eighty-one days later that signing humiliated Bayern’s defence in a matter of seconds.
humiliated Bayern’s defence in a matter of seconds. At 4:47 p.m. on that April Saturday, Grafite received the ball. What followed was great football: he slalomed between two defenders, shifted the ball past the rushing Michael Rensing and, with his back to goal and opponents all around him, used his heel to send the ball beyond the paralysed Bayern defenders and into the net.
It was the goal for 5–1, the final score, the goal that summed up Wolfsburg’s outstanding season and documented a temporary shift in the balance of power in German football.
Sportschau viewers later voted it Goal of the Year. It made Grafite immortal and, a few weeks later, helped place the first league shield in Wolfsburg hands.
Sometimes it is the small details that make
Sometimes it is the small details that make a moment special: a turn at exactly the right moment, an idea nobody expects.
a moment special: a turn at exactly the right moment, an idea nobody expects. Sometimes it is also a crocus brightening an otherwise plain meadow. Grafite and his goal against Bayern are that colourful crocus in otherwise all-green Wolfsburg — the very special moment in the club’s history.