João Pinto

João Pinto
Personnel
Surname	João Manuel Vieira Pinto
birthday	19th August 1971
place of birth	Porto (Campanhã),  Portugal
size	171 cm
position	striker
Juniors
Years	station
	Bairro do Falcão
	Águias da Areosa
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1988-1990	Boavista Porto	19 0(2)
1990-1991	Atlético Madrid
1991-1992	Boavista Porto	43 0(8)
1992-2000	Benfica Lisbon	302 (90)
2000-2004	Sporting Lisbon	142 (32)
2004-2006	Boavista Porto	62 (13)
2006-2008	Sporting Braga	33 0(3)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1991-2002	Portugal	81 (23)
1 Only league games are given.

João Manuel Vieira Pinto (born August 19, 1971 in Campanhã , Porto ) is a former Portuguese football player .

He mostly plays as a striker or attacking midfielder and represented the Portuguese national football team , in which he played a key role. Because of his success as a youth national player, he belonged to the so-called golden generation of Portugal.

Career

society

Beginnings

He was born in Campanhã , a district in the east of Porto . As a youth player, João Pinto played for Bairro do Falcão and Águias da Areosa (in Campanhã). After some time he tried to move to FC Porto , but they did not want to sign him, whereupon he decided to play for the team of Boavista Porto . As a youngster, João Pinto was known for his speed and ball control. After good performances in the youth division of the Portuguese national team, some scouts had him on their notes. In the 1990/91 season he moved to Spain to Atlético Madrid , but he was transferred to the reserve team Atlético Madrileño. After a moderate season he moved back to Boavista Porto, where he was able to participate in all games. He scored eight goals and became the Portuguese cup winner.

Benfica Lisbon

After these successes, he accepted an offer from the Portuguese top club Benfica Lisbon , where he spent the most successful time of his career. His first year started rather disappointingly. Problems with the lungs ( pneumothorax ) forced Pinto to watch his teammates win the cup. In 1994 he became champion and in 1996 the trophy was brought back to Lisbon. He himself has been voted Portugal's Footballer of the Year three times in a row (1992, 93, 94). In 1995 he was armbanded by António Veloso after the end of his career and from then on led the team as captain on the field. Shortly before the European Football Championship in 2000 , he was kicked out of the club due to a quarrel with the then club president João Vale e Azevedo.

Sporting Lisbon

Pinto quickly received offers from abroad and inland. Although he had almost signed a contract with FC Porto , he moved to Benfica's archenemy, Sporting Lisbon , in the summer of 2000 . Many Benfica fans saw this as a cheek towards them. After a rather poor first season, Sporting bought the top scorer at the time, Mário Jardel . Next to him Pinto returned to his old strength and he was again champion and cup winner (double 2002).

Boavista Porto

After two disappointing years in 2002/03 and 2003/04, his contract with Sporting was not renewed. Although he had a ready-to-sign contract from the Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal , he decided to return to Porto. There he experienced a second spring and narrowly failed to qualify for the UEFA Cup .

Sporting Braga

In July 2006, Pinto signed a one-year deal with Sporting Braga . During his presentation he received applause from numerous fans. With two goals in 24 encounters, he helped achieve fourth place. Because of this good performance, he extended his contract for another year. In February 2008, Pinto was in the trial training for MLS agent Toronto FC . On the 22nd, Braga announced the termination of the contract with the striker. However, there was no employment relationship between Pinto and Toronto.

National team

Early on, Pinto became one of the big stars in the Portuguese national football team . By winning the Junior World Cup in Riyadh (1989) and Lisbon (1991), he and his teammates at the time such as Vítor Baía and Luís Figo quickly made a name for themselves and the Portuguese Association hoped for successful times in the men's field. There was never a big title for this golden generation . With the two junior titles, Pinto is the only player to date to have celebrated this success twice.

He was nominated for the 1996 European Football Championship in England . After the Portuguese had finished the group stage as first in the table, the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals against the Czech Republic, who later took part in the final . Pinto played two games. Four years later he was in the squad for the EM 2000 in the Netherlands and Belgium . There Portugal advanced to the semi-finals, but had to admit defeat to eventual European champions France 2-1 after a golden goal . He played four games and was able to score his first and only European Championship goal in a 3-2 win over England .

At the Football World Cup in 2002 , he ran three times for his home country.

See also

• Portuguese squad for the 1996 European Championship
• Portuguese squad for the European Championship 2000
• Portuguese squad for the 2002 World Cup

Private

Pinto has a son, Tiago, and a daughter, Diana. He is divorced from the children's mother. His son Tiago Pinto is also a professional footballer.

With the model Marisa Cruz he has another son, João.

Web links

• João Pinto in the database of weltfussball.de
• Picture at sporting-heroes.net

predecessor	Office	successor
Vítor Baía	Portugal's Footballer of the Year 1992–1994	Luís Figo