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If you talk about a skilful, tricky Portuguese winger then you’d expect Cristiano Ronaldo to be the subject matter. However, he has a compatriot that has interested a number of Premier League clubs in the past and is certain to do so again after Euro 2008. That player is Porto’s Ricardo Quaresma.
The Porto star seems to have been around for years but is in fact only 24. He’s spent the majority of his career in his homeland apart from one season with the Catalan giants Barcelona where he struggled to live up to the expectation on his young shoulders. He only made 10 League starts (22 appearances) at the Camp Nou scoring once in the 2003/04 season. He then refused to play for his Barca coach Frank Rijkaard and was subsequently exchanged for Deco at Porto.
Quaresma like Ronaldo made his name at Sporting Lisbon where he worked his way up from the B side to play 59 League games (8 goals) before he moved to Barca for 6 million Euro’s. Since returning to Portugal with Porto the player has recaptured both his form and his reputation. In his 4 seasons with the Portuguese champions he has scored 24 League goals in 114 appearances. His club have also been incredibly successful since his return after winning the title for the past 3 seasons as well as the Portuguese Cup, an Intercontinental Cup and 2 Portuguese Supercup’s. The winger was also named Portuguese Player of the Year in successive seasons in 2006 and 2007.
Not only has the player rediscovered his club form, he’s also finally proven himself to be one of the stars of the national side after winning 20 caps and scoring twice. This figure doesn’t seem incredibly high but he did have to contend with star wingers such as Luis Figo and Simao for a starting berth. He was one of the stars of Portugal’s European U17 Football Championship winning team in 2000. His international career has not run completely smoothly as despite setting up more goals than any player in the season leading up to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Quaresma was controversially left out of Portugal’s squad for the tournament.
The Portuguese winger has been linked with numerous European clubs throughout recent seasons such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Lyon, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid. His club have reportedly rejected a number of big money bids and claimed club’s interested in his services would need to pay 40 million Euro’s to sign him in the future. However, with the ability to play on either wing he’ll remain one of the most highly coveted stars of Euro 2008.
The Porto star seems to have been around for years but is in fact only 24. He’s spent the majority of his career in his homeland apart from one season with the Catalan giants Barcelona where he struggled to live up to the expectation on his young shoulders. He only made 10 League starts (22 appearances) at the Camp Nou scoring once in the 2003/04 season. He then refused to play for his Barca coach Frank Rijkaard and was subsequently exchanged for Deco at Porto.
Quaresma like Ronaldo made his name at Sporting Lisbon where he worked his way up from the B side to play 59 League games (8 goals) before he moved to Barca for 6 million Euro’s. Since returning to Portugal with Porto the player has recaptured both his form and his reputation. In his 4 seasons with the Portuguese champions he has scored 24 League goals in 114 appearances. His club have also been incredibly successful since his return after winning the title for the past 3 seasons as well as the Portuguese Cup, an Intercontinental Cup and 2 Portuguese Supercup’s. The winger was also named Portuguese Player of the Year in successive seasons in 2006 and 2007.
Not only has the player rediscovered his club form, he’s also finally proven himself to be one of the stars of the national side after winning 20 caps and scoring twice. This figure doesn’t seem incredibly high but he did have to contend with star wingers such as Luis Figo and Simao for a starting berth. He was one of the stars of Portugal’s European U17 Football Championship winning team in 2000. His international career has not run completely smoothly as despite setting up more goals than any player in the season leading up to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Quaresma was controversially left out of Portugal’s squad for the tournament.
The Portuguese winger has been linked with numerous European clubs throughout recent seasons such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Lyon, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid. His club have reportedly rejected a number of big money bids and claimed club’s interested in his services would need to pay 40 million Euro’s to sign him in the future. However, with the ability to play on either wing he’ll remain one of the most highly coveted stars of Euro 2008.
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