Sporting
Lisbon (Portugal), FC Barcelona (Spain), FC Porto (Portugal)
Honours
UEFA U-21 Championship 2004 in Germany
Biography
Ricardo Andrade Quaresma Bernardo, commonly known just by
Rircardo 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 (maternal).
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.
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.
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. Only starting ten times, he came off
the bench eleven, 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 the 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.
At the start of the 2004/2005 season Quaresma was a key player
for Porto squad. A regular starter, he managed to score two
goals during the first two cup finals Porto had to play (European
Super Cup and Portuguese Super Cup).
Regarded as one of the best players of the Portuguese Superliga,
he managed to score 5 more goals. However Porto's team lacked
cohesion and thanks to its weak defense players, the
championship was lost to Benfica. By now Quaresma's influence is
crucial for Porto's, despite the troublesome times of the club.
