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Ricardo QuaresmaPortuguese footballer, midfielder
Date of Birth: 26.09.1983
Country:  Portugal |
Content:
Sporting CP
Ricardo Quaresma began his career in 2001 at Sporting CP's youth academy. He made his debut with the B team in the 2000/01 season, playing 15 matches. The following season, he was promoted to the main squad and played 28 matches, scoring 3 goals, becoming one of the team's key players. Quaresma's debut in the league came in a match against Porto. In the 2002/03 season, Sporting CP's results disappointed the fans, who immediately accused coach László Bölöni of playing Quaresma and Cristiano Ronaldo together.
Barcelona
In 2003, Quaresma was sold to Barcelona for €6 million. He debuted for the Catalans in a friendly match against Milan, scoring his first goal for the club. In that season, he played 10 matches as a starter and came on as a substitute 11 times, but only scored 1 goal. He wore the number 20 shirt. In the final weeks of the season, he suffered an injury and was forced to miss the European Championship. In the summer of 2004, Quaresma announced that he would refuse to play for Barcelona as long as the team was managed by Frank Rijkaard, attracting great interest from European clubs. He eventually left Barcelona, which received Deco from Porto, and in exchange gave up Quaresma and €15 million.
Porto
Quaresma's career at Porto began with a goal in the UEFA Super Cup and a winning goal against Benfica in the match for the Portuguese Super Cup. Over the course of the season, he played 32 matches and scored 5 goals. He contributed to the victory over Colombian team Once Caldas in the Intercontinental Cup with an 8:7 penalty shootout. Quaresma's stylish, flamboyant, and yet "smart" play, combined with his scandalous behavior off the field, made him the main protagonist of the Portuguese championship, its primary newsmaker, and its main asset. Despite his high level of footballing skill, Quaresma was not immune to criticism: he was mainly criticized for his individualism, his abuse of risky improvisations, and his unwillingness to work in defense. However, the player himself admitted the validity of this criticism and believed that with experience he would come to understand the balance between playing as a winger and teamwork. At the end of Quaresma's debut season, Porto finished second in the championship, one win behind Benfica, but Ricardo himself was named Portugal's Player of the Year. In the 2005/06 season, Quaresma once again performed brilliantly, helping the club take revenge on Benfica and become Portuguese champions. However, Portugal coach Luís Felipe Scolari did not take him to the 2006 World Cup.
In the summer of 2007, after Porto won its second consecutive championship, many top European clubs entered the race for Quaresma: Chelsea, Liverpool, Internazionale, Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid, Real Madrid, as well as Olympique Lyonnais and Fiorentina. Quaresma denied rumors of a possible move to the German club in an interview with O Jogo, stating that "it's very cold in Germany" and therefore he was "definitely not interested in playing there." He also rejected an offer from Atlético Madrid, believing that the club was not a top club and not strong enough for him, Quaresma. Despite a large number of offers from other clubs, none of them financially satisfied either the player or the management of Porto. As a result, Quaresma spent the 2007/08 season in Portugal, adding another championship title to his collection as well as an individual award - the Portuguese "Golden Ball."
Internazionale
On September 1, 2008, Quaresma signed a five-year contract with Italian club Internazionale until June 30, 2013. In his new team, the Portuguese player received the number 77 shirt. On September 13, in his debut match for the club, he scored his first goal, and thanks to a slight ricochet, this goal became one of the most beautiful of the season. However, problems soon began: Quaresma stopped getting into the starting lineup and, not wanting to watch his team's game from the bench, decided to leave the club. On December 8, 2008, Quaresma was recognized as the main disappointment of the season in Italy, winning the "Golden Urn" anti-award.
Later on, Quaresma regretted his move to the Milanese club: "There is only one thing I regret in life: in vain I transferred to Inter. There I became unhappy and lost my confidence. I still don't know why Mourinho didn't trust me. But it was he who invited me to the club. However, I can say that I was not in the best shape then. In Milan, I spent the two worst years of my life." The dismal situation at Inter forced Quaresma to try his luck in a loan for the first time in his career.
Chelsea
On February 2, 2009, Quaresma joined Chelsea on loan until the end of the season, where he would again play under the guidance of Luís Felipe Scolari, who had left the Portuguese national team only a few months earlier. Quaresma chose the number 18; the shirt with this number became available after defender Wayne Bridge's move to Manchester City. The English stage of his career started on a positive note for Quaresma; he gave enthusiastic interviews and assured that he had regained his self-confidence, lost during his time at Inter, and added that he was happy at the London club. However, Dutch specialist Guus Hiddink, who succeeded the sacked Scolari, did not count on Quaresma, who went deep into the reserves with no chance of returning to the roster. After playing only 5 matches for Chelsea (4 of them in the championship), Quaresma returned to Milan in the summer of 2009.
In the summer of 2009, Quaresma was once again a transfer target for many clubs, in particular, he almost moved to Genoa. Although Mourinho had promised to give him another chance, Quaresma had no illusions about the possibility of playing at Inter, as he told Corriere dello Sport: "I see no point in staying at Inter if I continue to sit on the bench. This is not José Mourinho's fault. He is a great coach. I don't think I'll come back to Portugal. I want to play in the Italian or Spanish championship. But the main thing when choosing a new club is to play." He remained at the club for another season, but, as time showed, only to worsen his position. Quaresma started the new season with a new shirt number, "inheriting" the seven from his compatriot Luís Figo, who had finished his career. With Goran Pandev's arrival at Inter in January 2010, it became clear that Mourinho no longer counted on Quaresma. He was soon excluded from Inter's squad for the Champions League play-offs, which was the last straw. During two incomplete years with the Milanese, Quaresma, for various reasons, was never able to approach his level of the Porto days, having played a negligible number of matches in the main lineup. A peculiar farewell to Quaresma can be considered the words of José Mourinho, said back in October 2008: "Ricardo is a great talent, but he still has a lot to learn, to become more disciplined, to be able to control his emotions, otherwise he will not only not return to his former level, but will not play at all. He is extremely inconsistent and very dependent on his mood: talking about Quaresma yesterday, today, and tomorrow, we will be talking about completely different people, so unbridled is he in his mood swings."
Beşiktaş
On June 13, 2010, after tough negotiations with the Milanese club, Quaresma moved to Beşiktaş in Turkey; the transfer fee was £6 million. Ricardo scored his first goals for his new club in the 2010 Europa League match against Czech Viktoria. The first season in Turkey was a successful one for Quaresma: firstly, he became a fan favorite, who accepted the Portuguese's fondness for feints and did not reproach him for abusing them, even if it diverged from the team's practical goals; secondly, for the first time in a long time, he found himself an organic part of a well-coordinated team; and thirdly, he won a trophy - the Turkish Cup and, which is important in light of recent years, made a direct contribution to this victory. At the same time, Quaresma increasingly demonstrated an outright spit on his partners and opponents, regularly getting into fights with his teammates and often being sent off the field for rough fouls against players on other teams. The beginning of Quaresma's downfall into the professional abyss can be considered as a quarrel over a trivial incident with veteran Beşiktaş player Nihat Kahveci, which occurred during the match on April 25, 2011. From the 2011/12 season on, Quaresma grew increasingly distant from football and became a character of scandalous gossip, while managing not to lose the sympathy and love of the fans.
In early March 2012, Quaresma was suspended from working with the team after an incident during halftime of the Europa League match with Atlético Madrid (0:3
