José Águas

José Águas

Personal information
Full name	José Pinto Carvalho Santos Águas
Date of birth	(1930-11-09)November 9, 1930
Place of birth	Lobito, Angola
Date of death	December 10, 2000(2000-12-10) (aged 70)
Place of death	Lisbon, Portugal
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Striker
Youth career
1944–1948	Lusitano Lobito
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1948–1950	Lusitano Lobito
1950–1963	Benfica	281	(290)
1963–1964	Austria Vienna	7	(2)
National team
1952–1962	Portugal	25	(11)
Teams managed
1967–1968	Atlético
1968–1969	Leixões
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

José Pinto de Carvalho Santos Águas (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒuˈzɛ ˈaɡwɐʃ]; 9 November 1930 – 10 December 2000) was a Portuguese footballer who played as a striker.

He enjoyed a lengthy professional spell with Benfica, never scoring less than 18 goals in 12 of his 13 first division seasons.

Football career

Born in Lobito, Portuguese Angola, Portuguese Empire, from a white colonial family, Águas started his footballing career with local team Lusitano do Lobito, before moving to S.L. Benfica in 1950, where he played until 1963, where he gained legendary status.

With Benfica he won the league five times (1955, 1957, 1960, 1961 and 1963), the domestic cup seven, also being crowned national league's top scorer on five occasions. In the years previous to Eusébio's explosion at the Lisbon side, he was also instrumental in Benfica's back-to-back European Cup conquests, in 1961 against FC Barcelona (3–2), and the next season against Real Madrid (5–3), scoring his team's first goal on both occasions, and being club captain; he failed to complete a hat-trick of wins in the competition after the 1–2 defeat to A.C. Milan in the 1963 final (he did not play).

For Portugal Águas made his debut on 23 November 1952 in a 1–1 draw with Austria, and went on to gain a total of 25 caps, netting 11 times. His last appearance was on 17 May 1962 a 1–2 defeat against Belgium.

After leaving Benfica Águas, aged 33, played one more season for FK Austria Wien, retiring the next summer. He died in the Portuguese capital at 70.

Personal

Águas' son, Rui, also a footballer and a striker, played with great individual success for Benfica and the national team. He also represented F.C. Porto, scoring 30 goals in two league seasons.

His daughter, Helena Maria, aka Lena D'Água, had a career in Pop music, mainly in the 80's.

External links

• Profile at Zerozero
• Stats at ForaDeJogo
• José Águas at National-Football-Teams.com