Gilberto Silva is a Brazilian football player. He has played most of his club football for the English club, Arsenal, as a defensive midfielder. Gilberto was raised in a poor family, and as a child he balanced playing football with various labouring jobs. He began his football career in 1997 with América Mineiro, where good form earned him a move to Atlético Mineiro in 2000. He became a star player for Atlético, playing for three years in the Brazilian Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. He came to particular prominence when he helped the Brazilian national team win the 2002 FIFA World Cup, playing in all seven of Brazil's matches. In August of 2002 he joined Arsenal for £4.5 million, with whom he has won the 2004 FA Premier League, and two FA Cup trophies. In his first five seasons with the club he played 208 games and scored 23 goals. On 19 August 2006 he scored Arsenal's first ever competitive goal at the newly built Emirates Stadium. He was made vice-captain of Arsenal in 2006 and is contracted to the club until June 2009, after which he is expected to move back to Brazil.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1204: Fourth Crusade: Count Baldwin IX of Flanders was crowned the first Latin Emperor in Constantinople. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_I_of_Constantinople) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Empire)

1811: Peninsular War: An allied force of British, Spanish, and Portuguese defeated the French Army at the Battle of Albuera. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Albuera)

1866: Root beer was first prepared commercially. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_beer)

1929: The first Academy Awards were handed out at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award)

1943: World War II: SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop (pictured) put an end to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the first mass uprising in Poland against the Nazi occupation during the Holocaust. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

The universe is flux, life is opinion. -- Marcus Aurelius (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius)