Paulo Ferreira

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Rebocho and the second or paternal family name is Ferreira.

Paulo Ferreira

Personal information
Full name	Paulo Renato Rebocho Ferreira
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Full back
Team information
Current team	Chelsea
Number	19
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1998–2000	Estoril-Praia	37	(2)
2000–2002	Vitória de Setúbal	69	(2)
2002–2004	Porto	62	(0)
2004–	Chelsea	112	(2)
International career‡
2002–	Portugal	62	(0 )
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 17:39, 8 June 2010 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 20:00, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Paulo Renato Rebocho Ferreira (born 18 January 1979 in Cascais, Portugal) is a Portuguese football player who currently plays as a defender at full back for Chelsea in the English Premier League.

A regular in the Portuguese national team, Ferreira is predominantly known as a right back, but has also played at left back and in central defence.

Club career

Early career

An unspectacular but consistent performer, Ferreira was once described by José Mourinho as "a player who will never be man of the match but will always score 7/10 for his individual display."

He started his career in the Portuguese second division for Estoril-Praia. He then moved to Vitória de Setúbal at the start of the 2000–01 season.

Porto

Due to his excellent performances in the Portuguese first division, he moved to FC Porto in the summer of 2002, signed by then-coach José Mourinho. Ferreira was previously a right-side midfielder until he met Mourinho at Porto.

In the following season, he won the League and Cup double domestically but the capture of the UEFA Cup over Celtic in Seville was the highlight of an exceptional season. The next season brought another Portuguese Liga title but more importantly he played every minute of Porto's UEFA Champions League win.

Chelsea

After playing for Porto for two years, he joined Chelsea for £13.2 million at the beginning of the Premiership 2004–2005 season. At Stamford Bridge, Ferreira was reunited with his former manager José Mourinho and former teammate Ricardo Carvalho, both of whom were also signed by Chelsea in the off-season. Ferreira impressed greatly in his debut season, playing 29 Premier League matches before injury ruled him out for the remainder of the campaign. He continued his fine form into the following campaign, during which he scored his first Chelsea goal in the 3–1 victory over Colchester United in the FA Cup fourth round.

Despite becoming a regular on the manager's team sheet, Ferreira suffered from a lack of confidence in the 2006–07 season and eventually lost his place first to Khalid Boulahrouz, and then to midfielder Geremi. The emergence of young French midfielder Lassana Diarra further reduced the playing time for Ferreira, as Mourinho saw it fit to play the French international in the full back position. However, Ferreira did play the full 120 minutes of Chelsea's 1–0 FA Cup final win over Manchester United.

He was the second choice right back for Chelsea during the 2007–08 season, behind Michael Essien and Juliano Belletti. When played, Ferreira was his usual consistent self, putting in unspectacular, workman-like performances. Ferreira signed a new five-year deal with Chelsea on 18 February 2008, which would keep him at the club until 2013 and agreed a squad number swap from 20 to 19 for the 2008–09 season following Deco's arrival. A rumour on the last day of the transfer window suggested that Ferreira was on the verge of joining Chelsea's London rivals West Ham United, either on a season long loan deal or a permanent deal. The rumour turned out to be false, however. He suffered an injury late in the 2008–09 season, stuck on 99 Premier League games. Paulo Ferriera finally made his appearance for Chelsea in a League Cup match against west London rivals Queens Park Rangers on 23 September 2009. He had been out with an injury since January. He scored just his second ever Chelsea goal, a late equaliser in extra-time in the League Cup quarter-final against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park in the dying moments, however, Chelsea went on to lose on penalties.

Due to injuries of full backs such as Ashley Cole, Jose Bosingwa and more recently Branislav Ivanovic, he has been given a more consistent role in the starting eleven, being paired at the full back positions with Yuri Zhirkov. Most significantly in the 7–1 win against Aston Villa and the 2–1 victory against Manchester United. Ferreira made 20 appearances in total, scoring 1 goal in all competitions for Chelsea in the 2009-10 season, playing 13 Premier League games, and starting seven FA Cup and League Cup ties respectively.

International career

Portuguese defenders defending against a freekick (left to right:Ferreira, Pepe, Carvalho, and Bosingwa

Ferreira was called up for the Portuguese under-21 side and accumulated 27 caps.

He was called up to the national team for Portugal's UEFA Euro 2004 campaign and started their opening game against a lowly Greece side, but a series of mistakes in the game saw him dropped for Miguel for the rest of the tournament. He did, however, come on in Portugal's huge upset defeat against Greece in the final, following an injury to Miguel.

Paulo made two appearances for Portugal in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In the semi-final against France, which Portugal lost 1–0, Ferreira came on in the second half for the injured Miguel. He then started the third place playoff against the host country Germany, which the Germans won 3–1.

Ferreira faces competition from José Bosingwa and Miguel for the Portugal right-back slot and is often played at left-back since the retirement of Nuno Valente.

Ferreira was named in the Portguese Squad for the UEFA Euro 2008 championships. Portugal were knocked out in the quarter-finals and Ferreira was a starter in all of their four matches, playing at left back.

Career statistics

[1] Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1997–98||rowspan="3"|Estoril-Praia||||1||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1998–99||||15||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1999-00||||21||2|||||||||||||||| |- |2000–01||rowspan="2"|Vitória de Setúbal||||34||2|||||||||||||||| |- |2001–02||||34||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2002–03||rowspan="2"|Porto||rowspan="2"|Portuguese Liga||30||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2003–04||32||0|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2004–05||rowspan="6"|Chelsea||rowspan="6"|Premier League||29||0||1||0||5||0||7||0||42||0 |- |2005–06||21||0||3||1||1||0||6||0||31||1 |- |2006–07||24||0||5||0||2||0||6||0||37||0 |- |2007–08||18||0||3||0||2||0||5||0||28||0 |- |2008–09||7||0|||1||0||2||0||2||0||12||0 |- |2009–10||13||0||4||0||3||1||0||0||20||1 |- Template:Football player statistics 3167||4|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 4112||0||17||1||15||1||26||0||170||2 Template:Football player statistics 5279||4|||||||||||||||| |}

Honours

Porto

• Portuguese League: 2002–03, 2003–04
• Cup of Portugal: 2003
• Portuguese Super Cup: 2003, 2004
• UEFA Champions League: 2004
• UEFA Cup: 2003

Chelsea

• Premier League: 2004–05, 2005–06, 2009–10
• FA Cup: 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10
• Football League Cup: 2004–05, 2006–07
• FA Community Shield: 2005, 2009

Portugal

• UEFA European Football Championship:
• (runner-up): 2004
• World Cup:
• (4th place): 2006

Orders

• Medal of Merit, Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa (House of Braganza)

External links

• PortuGOAL profile
• Paulo Ferreira at Soccerbase