32 Greatest footballers in the history of the English Premier League - Part 2
31. Ricardo Carvalho
Ricardo Carvalho is a Portuguese footballer who is currently playing for the Spanish La Liga side Real Madrid. He is also performing for his national team, Portugal.
Ricardo Carvalho was born in the Amarante, Portugal and during the early years of his footballing career, he used to play for the local side Amarante Futebol Clube. His extraordinary skills were well recognized by the Portuguese side, Porto and in 1996 he
was taken in by the Portuguese powerhouse. He used to play for Porto’s junior team and even had a chance to go out on loan from 1997-2001.
With a team like Leca, which he was a part of, he made his first professional debut. However, it was not until Jose Mourinho’s time when he actually started to feel comfortable and stated becoming famous for his talent. During 2002-2003, Ricardo Carvalho
became famous in Europe as his side managed to grab the domestic league under Mourinho and later, they also got their hands on the Portuguese Cup.
The major surprise came in when the Portuguese club were considered to be the underdogs and they still managed to win the UEFA Cup. In 2003, his amazing form helped him become a part of his national team and he got an international call-up. The very next
season, Porto won the title again and they also managed to win the UEFA Champions League, which was the biggest surprise for not only Carvalho but also for all of the European clubs as they did not even consider Porto in the final 4.
In the summer window of July 2004, Carvalho got an offer from the English side Chelsea and he made the decision to leave the Portuguese side as a deal of approximately 20 million pounds was struck. Alongside Chelsea, he won two Premier League titles in a
row and also won the League Cup. He won all these trophies in the first two seasons and in the second season he was a part of the squad that reached the UEFA Champions League final for the very first time in the history of the club. It was a game that is in
the history books as Chelsea lost the match 6-5 from Manchester United as the match went down to penalties.
Later in the same year, Carvalho was voted as Chelsea’s player of the year and was given an award by the club. Then two years later, the Portuguese defender helped “The Blues” win their first Championship after 2006 and later they also won the FA Cup as
he gave some fabulous performances throughout the year. In 2009-2010, Chelsea won their first ever double in the history of the club. However, his spell with the English side was not to be too long as the Spanish team Real Madrid decided to take him for 6.7
million pounds and he was transferred to Real Madrid as Jose Mourinho was now in charge of the Spanish team.
While Carvalho was a success at the club level, he was nothing less for his national side. Internationally, he represented his country in two UEFA Euros of 2004 and 2008. Moreover, he was also a first team player during the FIFA World Cup 2006 and 2010.
During the FIFA World Cup 2006, he was a defensive wall and helped the team reach the semi finals but it was the French team led by Zinedine Zidanne that was totally unstoppable, and the Portuguese side suffered a loss when they had to face France.
In FIFA World Cup 2010, he was one of the players who did not let the opposition score on them and they suffered only a single goal in 4 matches, but were eliminated because of it as the Spanish side were victorious that night.
Tags: