Rogério Ceni: The Goalkeepers Top Scorer

Rogério Mücke Ceni (born January 22, 1973 in Pato Branco, Paraná) is a Brazilian goalkeeper. He has been a member of the Brazilian Série A club São Paulo since September 7, 1990, playing more than 950 matches and winning 2 Copa Libertadores trophies and two World Club Championship with them. He is notable for his foot skills with the ball, having scored numerous goals during his career, taking free kicks and penalty kicks and is also the first ever goalkeeper to score a goal in a competition organized by FIFA. He is officially recognized by FIFA and the IFFHS as the goalkeeper to have scored the most goals in the history of football.

Despite his position, Rogério Ceni has established a reputation as a goalscorer, similar to Paraguay's José Luis Chilavert, Germany's Hans-Jörg Butt, Bulgaria's Dimitar Ivankov, Mexico's Jorge Campos, and Colombia's René Higuita. He has often taken penalties for São Paulo as well. On August 20, 2006, he scored his 63rd goal by netting a free kick against Cruzeiro in the Brazilian League, a few minutes after denying a penalty kick for Cruzeiro that would take the match to a 0-3 score. Later on in the same match, he scored a penalty kick and reached 64 goals - 21 from penalties and 43 from free kicks, a goal that tied the match 2-2. This record put Ceni on top, over Chilavert (2nd), two goals under the record of Brazilian goalkeeper. He has scored 100 goals in 950 appearances - from 43 penalties and 53 free kicks so far (February 13, 2011).

On July 14, 2005, Rogério Ceni was São Paulo's captain as the team won the 2005 Copa Libertadores for the third time. Two weeks later, in a match against Atlético Mineiro, he broke the record for most appearances for the São Paulo club, with 618 matches played. He wore a special commemorative jersey that had the number "618" printed on the back. In December 2005, he was named Man of the Match for his outstanding performance during the 1-0 victory against Liverpool FC in the FIFA Club World Cup final match and also awarded by FIFA as the Best Player of the tournament. On July 25, 2006 he scored a penalty kick winner against Mexican side Chivas, becoming São Paulo's Copa Libertadores all-time leading scorer.

On October 29, 2006, Rogério Ceni made his 700th appearance for São Paulo against Figueirense in a 2-0 victory. But some of the gloss was taken off the occasion when Rogerio - who captained the team that won the Libertadores Cup and Club World championship last year - was ordered to change his bright yellow jersey, because it clashed with the referee's, so he played with the reserve goalkeeper's shirt. In the same year, on November 19, Ceni won his first (and São Paulo's fourth) Campeonato Brasileiro title. In the following year, Ceni won the same title, being elected by CBF as the Best Player in 2007's Campeonato Brasileiro.

On March 27, 2011, Rógerio made history by scoring his 100th goal - which also turned out to be the winning goal - in a 2-1 win over rivals Corinthians from a free-kick hit about 20 yards from goal.

Rogério Ceni has earned 17 caps for the Brazilian national team, and was the third-choice goalkeeper on the 2002 FIFA World Cup-winning squad. He was selected by coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to the 2006 FIFA World Cup squad as second choice goalkeeper. His only playing time in the tournament were the last ten minutes of the second half of Brazil's 4-1 group stage victory over Japan as a substitute for Dida. [source : Rogério Ceni]

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