Ricardo Quaresma BiographySporting 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", coming second in total minutes played (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
Quaresma was sold to FC Barcelona for €6,000,000 (approximately £4,100,000 GBP), plus playing rights for Fábio 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 started ten times, came off the bench eleven times, and scored only one goal. In the final weeks of the season he injured his right foot badly, missing both the UEFA U-21 Championship 2004 in Germany and Euro 2004, although it was highly unlikely that 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, because it was the only club that Quaresma wanted to join in Portugal.
The value of his transfer was around €6M.
FC Porto
He started with a bang, scoring in the European Super Cup and netting the only goal in Porto's triumph against SL Benfica in the Portuguese Super Cup/SuperCup Cândido de Oliveira. 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 Liga, he managed to score 5 more goals. However Porto's team lacked cohesion, and the championship was lost to Benfica. Quaresma's influence was critical in Porto's 2005/06 title win. He was the assists leader in the Portuguese Liga and was very controversially omitted from the Portugal World Cup squad by Luis Felipe Scolari.
Quaresma was seen as a talented player with a major short-coming: lack of defensive skills. 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. He has become famous for his amazing technique in which he crosses the ball with the outer part of his right foot, in order to achieve a curve in which the ball is "pulled" away from the keeper right to the feet of the striker. After agreeing a deal with Atletico Madrid,[citation needed] Quaresma was rumoured to sign for the team in the January transfer market to replace injured wingers Martin Petrov and Maximiliano Rodriguez, with Porto President Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa stating that Atletico Madrid would need to pay a lot of money for Quaresma who still has three years on his Contract. Quaresma has recently stated that he will not be moving to Atletico Madrid and will stay with Porto. There were also reports suggesting that Chelsea FC has made a £14 million bid to move the player during the January transfer window but failed due to the differences between Jose Mourinho and Roman Abramovich. Reports are suggesting that the move will be completed in summer 2007.
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 2004â„¢, 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 huge criticism by Portuguese people, particularly FC Porto fans. Scolari believed in "club Portugal" and that the players which helped the team qualify for the World Cup should be picked ahead of Ricardo. Other people suggest that since Luis Boa Morte took his place in the final squad having rarely played in the qualifiers, that Scolari felt that Quaresma's personality and attitude wasn't good for the team. Quaresma was also voted Portuguese player of the year.
Scolari then called him up to play against Brazil in London where Portugal had won 2-0. Quaresma had two assists, and was man of the match.
Ricardo Quaresma is rumoured to have once scored 129 goals in 61 appearances as a youngster.
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