Ricardo Andrade Quaresma Bernardo, born 26 September 1983 in Lisbon, Portugal is a professional footballer.


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 the championship was lost to Benfica. By now Quaresma's influence is crucial for Porto's, and it is considered the best football player in Portugal.

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