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.

Ricardo Quaresma's Portugal have been drawn a tough group for the World Cup 2010... how will they perform? For all the latest online betting odds be sure to visit bwin.com

Football is Spains national game, and the Spanish peoples passion for it is one of the strongest in the world of football. La Liga is second only to the Premiership in England and the Spanish national team has for some time been the strongest in Europe and given the results of the 2010 Football World Cup, it is currently the strongest in the world.

The most famous Spanish teams are FC Barcelona and Real Madrid and many consider Real Madrid to be the finest football team in the World, though of course many would also disagree with this sentiment. Also some of the football stadiums in Spain are world beating. The Barcelona stadium at Nou Camp can seat 100,000 spectators and this is almost matched by Bernabeu, the FC Madrid stadium, which has a capacity of 90,000.

There is a huge rivalry between these two teams, and this extends further than just football as there is also a clash of cultures between the essentially Catalonian Barcelona and the Spanish Madrid.

During its history La Liga has been won by Real Madrid 31 times and by FC Barcelona 20 times. The current champions are FC Barcelona as they were the previous year. This year Real Madrid has been making extensive preparations to reverse this in the 2010-2011 season. When these two sides clash, the match is known as El Derby; the support for both sides is tremendous and a considerable amount of money is staked on the outcome.

Sports betting on La Liga has become very popular over recent years thanks mainly to the internet and the ease by which online Spanish football betting and spanish football scores can be accessed through such websites as Footballscores.com.

Many top football players from all over the world have been attracted by the glamour and financial rewards that go with playing for these super-teams. Such well known names as David Beckham, Christiano Rolando, Gary Linekar and others, who were at one time players for British clubs, as are now associated with the times spend playing for the top Spanish ones.