João Morais

João Morais
Personnel
Surname	João Pedro Morais
birthday	March 6, 1935
place of birth	Cascais ,  Portugal
date of death	April 27, 2010
Place of death	Vila do Conde ,  Portugal
size	169 cm
position	midfield
Juniors
Years	station
1949-1951	Sporting Alcabideche
1951-1954	DG Estoril Praia
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1954-1955	Caldas SC
1956-1958	SC União Torreense	41 (18)
1958-1969	Sporting Lisbon	192 (50)
1970-1972	Rio Ave FC
1972-1973	FC Paços de Ferreira
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1966-1967	Portugal	9 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

João Pedro Morais - often just Morais - (born March 6, 1935 in Cascais , † April 27, 2010 in Vila do Conde ) was a Portuguese football player and coach . The defender won with Sporting Lisbon the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1964 and twice the championship and once the Cup of Portugal. was with the national team around the legendary Eusébio third at the Soccer World Cup in England in 1966 .

Morais played in the first team of Sporting Alcabideche as a 14-year-old, but switched to the junior teams of the first division club Grupo Desportivo Estoril Praia in 1951 . In 1954 he signed contracts with the ambitious second division club Caldas SC from Caldas da Rainha just under 100 kilometers north of Lisbon, who made Morais an excellent financial offer, and with the top club SL Benfica, with whom the club had already made transfer agreements. For this he was given a one-year ban, but this was shortened to half a year. From ultimately Caldas, he moved in 1955 to the first division promoted SC União Torreense . In the following years he finished twice seventh and once eighth with Torreense, which describes the club's most successful period.

In 1958 he moved to the reigning national champion Sporting Lisbon . Under the Uruguayan coach Enrique Fernández , he initially made many appearances in his preferred position as the left wing, but initially showed little willingness to be placed in more defensive positions. Coach Júlio Cernadas Pereira "Juca" of Mozambique was here more persuasive, and as Left full-back, he won his first national championship in 1962. Another championship followed in 1966 and the cup in 1963 . This title qualified for participation in the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1963/64 .

On the way to the final, SCP scored 16: 1 against APOEL Nicosia from Cyprus, the highest victory to date in a European Cup game. In the quarterfinals he won after a 1: 4 first leg defeat against Manchester United for Bobby Charlton and George Best at home 5: 0, with Morais contributing 4: 0. In the semifinals, after results of 0: 0 and 1: 1 against Olympique Lyon, a playoff was necessary, which the SCP won 1-0 in Madrid. After a 3: 3 in the final against MTK Budapest in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels , an additional game had to be scheduled here as well. In the replay at the Bosuil Stadium in Antwerp, Morais scored the only goal of the game with a legendary, directly converted corner in the 20th minute and secured the only win in this competition for a Portuguese club. The "corner of Morais" found its way into folklore as Cantinho do Morais and was sung about itself. He was only used in the final against MTK due to an injury to the regular Hilário Conceição .

In June 1966 he came to his first two international matches as part of the preparation of the national team for the 1966 World Cup in England. Portugal finished third at the finals with stars like Eusébio in what went down in history as Magriços . Morais played in two group games, with Portugal winning 3-1 against the well-occupied Hungarians and defending champions Brazil. In the latter game he committed the foul against Pelé after about 30 minutes, which successfully put the football legend out of action for the rest of the game. At this point Portugal were already 2-0 up. His third game at the tournament is also remembered. In the quarter-finals against North Korea - which eliminated Italy in the group stage - Portugal still won 5: 3 after 0: 3 deficit.

In total, he came to nine internationals by 1967, including three qualifying games for the final round of the 1968 European Championship in Italy, which was held at the time with only four teams . Portugal surprisingly failed here because of Bulgaria.

At Sporting he played in both wing and full-back positions and scored 66 goals in his 255 games. In 1969 he said goodbye to Sporting and played for a long time in South Africa and at Rio Ave FC in Vila do Conde in northwest Portugal, where he also worked as a coach.

On December 19, 1966, he was awarded the silver medal of the Order of Infante Dom Henrique for his services to football .

Web links

• Morais , Wiki Sporting (as of October 19, 2012).
• Morais (international matches), EU-Football.info (as of June 8, 2018).
• Obituário , Expresso, April 28, 2010.
• O Cantinho do Morais , (video of the winning goal by José Morais), youtube, 2006.