Miguel Veloso

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Miguel Luís Pinto Veloso (born 11 May 1986 in Coimbra) is a Portuguese footballer currently playing for Sporting Clube de Portugal and the Portuguese national team. Mainly a defensive midfielder, he can also operate as central defender.

[edit] Club career

Miguel Veloso started his career at S.L. Benfica, where his father became famous but, at the age of 14, switched to rivals Sporting Clube de Portugal where he played for five straight years, eventually training with the first team during the 2004-05 season. His first playing position was central defender.

In order to give him more playing time, Sporting loaned Veloso to Clube Desportivo Olivais e Moscavide for the 2005-06 season. There he accomplished, as an influential player, promotion to the second division. As a result of this positive loan, Sporting recalled Veloso for the following season. Although it appeared difficult for him to grab a spot in Sporting's starting team, because of the presence of players with much more experience, such as Anderson Polga, Tonel, Marco Caneira or Custódio, he would play with the first team for most of the season. He was equally impressive in his UEFA Champions League debut, a 1-0 home win against Internazionale Milano, where he stopped Patrick Vieira and Luís Figo from playing effectively. Before the match, much was made of Figo's homecoming, but by the end of the 90 minutes, all the talk was about Veloso, who turned in a Man of the Match display in a memorable 1-0 win. In 2007-08, Veloso was ever-present with João Moutinho in the centre of the Sporting midfield. In the close season of both the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons interest was high in Veloso with Bolton Wanderers looking to capture his services offering up to twelve million pounds for the young midfielder.

[edit] International career

Following Veloso's impressive performances for Portugal's under-21 side in the European championship in June (although Portugal exited in the group stages, the skipper scored twice in three games),^[1]on 14 August 2007, Veloso was called-up for the Portuguese full squad for the first time, for an Euro 2008 qualifier against Armenia. He would make his international debut against Azerbaijan on 13 October.

In the tournament final's group stage, Veloso appeared in the 2-0 loss against Switzerland, on 16 June 2008, a game in which nine out of eleven regular team starters were rested.

[edit] Honours

• Portuguese Cup: 2006-07, 2007-08
• Portuguese SuperCup: 2007, 2008

[edit] Personal

Veloso's father António is a former Portuguese national team and S.L. Benfica defender. His mother is Teresa and he also has a younger sister named Raquel.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Stats and profile at zerozero.pt
• PortuGOAL profile
• Miguel Veloso worldwide community
• Miguel Veloso blog fan

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