This is a Portuguese name; the first family name is Santos and the second is Leite.

Rodrigo Izecson dos Santos Leite, known simply as Digão, (born 14 October 1985 in Brasília) is a Brazilian football defender who plays for Italian Serie B club U.S. Lecce, on loan from Serie A team A.C. Milan. He is the younger brother of Real Madrid and Brazil midfielder Kaká.

[edit] Career

Digão joined Milan from São Paulo in the summer of 2004.^[1] However, he was registered as a Sampdoria player until the summer of 2005.^[2] He went on to spend the following two seasons on loan to Rimini, where he appeared in a number of competitive matches for the first team.

Returning to Milan in the summer of 2007, Digão made his debut for the club in a friendly match against Dynamo Kyiv on 6 September 2007, in which he received a yellow card. His first competitive appearance came on 20 December 2007 in Milan's 2-1 defeat at home to Catania in the first leg of the Coppa Italia round of 16. He eventually made his Serie A debut on 1 March 2008 in Milan's 1-1 draw at home to Lazio, coming on as a half-time substitute for Marek Jankulovski. It was his only Serie A appearance of the season.

On 13 August 2008, Standard de Liège announced on their official website that Digão will join the Belgian champions on a season-long loan deal.^[3] He only appeared in a single Jupiler Pro League match for the club, coming on as a late substitute in their 3-1 win at home to Germinal Beerschot on 5 April 2009, and returned to Milan at the end of the season.

On 11 July 2009, he was handed a one-week trial with the newly promoted German Bundesliga side SC Freiburg at the club's pre-season training camp in Schruns, Austria, where he also played 30 minutes of the club's friendly match against Slavia Prague as a substitute.^[4][5] On 22 July 2009, however, the club decided not to sign the player, presumably because of his lack of playing time in competitive matches over the last two seasons.^[6]

On 31 August 2009, he joined Lecce on loan for the 2009-10 season.

[edit] Personal Life

Digão is the younger brother of Real Madrid and Brazil midfielder Kaká, and was responsible for Kaká's nickname, being unable to pronounce 'Ricardo' as a child, and thus calling him Kaká instead.^[7]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Profile at AC Milan
• (Dutch) Profile at Voetbal International