Carlos Alberto Souto Maior Silva Batista (born 20 December 1972), commonly known as Calita, is a Portuguese former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Football career

Calita started his career with Imortal DC. He had only played in seven

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

games for

S.C. Farense Sporting Clube Farense, simply known as Farense, is a Portuguese professional association football, football club based in Faro, Portugal, Faro in the Faro District, district of the same name and the region of Algarve. Founded in 1910, the club ha ...

when he was purchased by

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

on 5 July 1995, after failing a trial at

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

, for a fee reported as ranging from £125,000–350,000. He never broke into the first team with the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club and finished 1995–96 back in his country with Boavista, also in the top division. During his short spell in England, he was known as Carlita. He was the first Portuguese footballer to be signed by an English

club. But he later revealed that he joined Coventry City after having been made false salary promises, and he left the club because his actual income was barely enough to live on. From 1997 until his retirement two decades later, Calita never played higher than the third level of Portuguese football and predominantly competed in the second regional division, with most of the teams hailing from the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

region.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Calita 1972 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Segunda Divisão players Imortal D.C. players C.D. Nacional players S.C. Farense players Louletano D.C. players Boavista F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Footballers from Lisbon