Ricardo Quaresma

Ricardo Andrade Quaresma Bernardo, commonly known just by Ricardo Quaresma (pron. IPA: //), or Quaresma, born 26 September 1983 in Lisbon, Portugal is a professional footballer, nicknamed "Ciganito" (little gipsy), "Harry Potter" and also "Mustang" by former coach Laszlo Bölöni. Ciganito because Ricardo is of Gipsy-Descent (paternal).

Sporting years

A Sporting trainee, he debuted as a professional during the 2000-2001 season in the B side, playing 15 games. In the next season he was selected by Laszlo Bölöni to play in the main squad, where he played 28 matches, scored three goals and was a key player in Sporting's title. Quaresma's SuperLiga debut for Sporting came against his current employers, FC Porto.

During the 2002-2003 season he was Sporting's "lone star", the second player in total minutes (2216), played in 31 matches, and scoring in five occasions. The poor results during the season were partially attributed to Bölöni, who rarely played Cristiano Ronaldo and Quaresma at the same time.

Barcelona

Afterwards, he was sold to FC Barcelona for €6,000,000 (plus playing rights for Fabio Rochemback), but failed to make his mark with the Catalan side. He first played for FC Barcelona in a friendly in the USA versus AC Milan. In the game he scored his first goal for barcelona (Ronaldinho did the same). During the season, he only starting ten times, he came off the bench eleven times, scoring only one goal. In the final weeks of the season he injured his right foot badly, missing the UEFA U-21 Championship 2004 in Germany and Euro 2004, although it was highly unlikely he would have been called up for the major tournament.

During Euro 2004 he announced his refusal to play for Barcelona as long as Frank Rijkaard was in charge, and several teams began inquiring about the talented player. However, Sporting rivals FC Porto had an advantage: a transfer for Deco was being negotiated, and Quaresma could be used as part of the transfer fee. At first uninterested in returning to Portugal, he changed his mind quickly and was presented as a Porto signing on 6 July. The value of his transfer was €6M.

FC Porto

Started with a bang, scoring in the European Super Cup and the only goal in Porto's triumph against SL Benfica in the Portuguese Super Cup. Went on to score five goals in 32 league matches, and was ever-present in Porto's run to the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League. He also contributed to the dramatic win against CD Once Caldas in the 2004 European/South American Cup, scoring in a thrilling penalty shoot-out victory.

Regarded as one of the best players of the Portuguese Superliga, he managed to score 5 more goals. However Porto's team lacked cohesion, the championship was lost to Benfica. By now Quaresma's influence is crucial for Porto's contributing to the 2005/06 title. In the 2005/06 season he was the assists leader in the portuguese superliga and was very controversially omitted from the Portugal world cup squad by Luis Felipe Scolari.

Quaresma was seen as a talented player, but with a major short-coming, the lack of defensive skills - or, better saying, lack of generosity to help his team in defense. This shortcoming has now been corrected - and is seen as one of Co Adriaanse's main achievements - and Quaresma is a real team-player, helping both in defense whenever needed, and in offense, with his stunning dribbling skills and magical passes and crosses. A powerful and skilful Portuguese winger, Ricardo Quaresma put a disappointing 12 months at FC Barcelona behind him when he joined FC Porto in summer 2004.

National team

A UEFA European Under-16 Championship winner in 2000, he made his full international debut in a June 2003 friendly against Bolivia. Poor form and injury, however, prevented Quaresma from taking part in the 2004 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, UEFA EURO 2004™, and the Olympic Games in Athens. However, sparkling displays with Porto won a role in Portugal's quest for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and the winger helped his country to a vital 2-0 win against Slovakia. He wasn't chosen to play for Portugal on FIFA's 2006 World Cup, which attracted some criticism by Portuguese people, particularly FC Porto fans.

External links

FootballDatabase provides Ricardo Quaresma's profile and stats

Notes