Donieber Alexander Marangon

Doniéber Alexander Marangon (born 22 October 1979), more frequently known as simply Doni, is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Liverpool as a goalkeeper.[1] He was born in Jundiaí, São Paulo.

He is the elder brother of João Paulo Fernando Marangon. Doni also holds an Italian passport. His parental family came from Veneto and his grandmother came from Mantua[2]

Club career

Roma

Doni joined Roma on 30 August 2005, after Roma paid the buy-out fee of about US$18,000.[3] He signed a 1+3 year contract worth €300,000 in gross in the first year.[4]

With Roma, Doni at first was blocked from first team action by Italian U-21 international Gianluca Curci and was restricted to UEFA Cup games. However, after impressing in cup competition, he replaced Curci in goal for league games.

His contract was renewed on 13 April 2006, now worth €1.25 million a season (in gross).[5] In his second season with Roma, he became one of the best goalkeepers of the Serie A.[6] He won Coppa Italia twice in 2007 and 2008, and also finished as the runner-up of Serie A in 2007 and 2008.

In May 2008, his contract was extended to June 2012. He would earned a gross annual salary of about €4 million in average (from €3.8M in the first year to €4.3M in the last year)[7][8]

In the second half of the 2008–09 season, he lost his place to Artur after a 1–4 loss to Juventus on 21 March. He continued for the next 2 matches to be in the squad[9][10] but was not starting or even sitting on the bench. He then trained separately with injured players and visited the doctor for his knee in April 2009.[11]

In the 2009–10 season, the club continued to use Artur and then Júlio Sérgio as first choice, despite employed Claudio Ranieri to replace Luciano Spalletti. Doni was recovering from injury. In October 2009, he returned to the team for the match against A.C. Milan on 18 October but soon lost his place again to Júlio Sérgio.

After Vincenzo Montella replaced Ranieri as head coach in February 2011, Doni returned to starting XI in the second match in-charged by Montella, a 2–2 draw with Parma on 27 February.

Liverpool

Doni signed for Premier League club Liverpool on 15 July 2011 on free transfer. He is expected to act as cover for Pepe Reina.[12] As part of the deal, Roma would paid Doni €1.5 million, net of tax,[13] roughly covered the wage difference between Roma and Liverpool's deal.[14]

International career

Doni earned his first cap with the Brazilian national team against Turkey in Dortmund, Germany on 5 June 2007.

In the Copa America 2007, he was selected as Brazil's first choice keeper moments before their first match against Mexico, replacing Helton. His play in the tournament included two penalty saves in penalty kicks against Uruguay in the semi-finals, which sent Brazil to the final.[15] Brazil won the tournament with a 3–0 win over Argentina.

Honours

Corinthians

Brazilian Cup: 2002

Rio-São Paulo Tournament: 2002

São Paulo State Championship: 2003

Roma

Coppa Italia: 2007, 2008

Supercoppa Italiana: 2007

National Team

Copa América: 2007