Carriere de luis figo biography

Portuguese footballer (born 1973)

For other uses, see Pauleta (disambiguation).

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Carreiro and the second or paternal family name is Resendes.

Pedro Miguel Carreiro ResendesComMOIH (born 28 April 1973), known as Pauleta (Portuguese pronunciation:[pawˈletɐ]), is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a striker.

During 18 years as a senior he never played in the Primeira Liga, having spent 12 of those campaigns in Spain and France. He had his most successful spell at Paris Saint-Germain, where he scored 109 goals across all competitions. Three times the top goalscorer in Ligue 1, he was also voted twice as the division's player of the season.

Pauleta also scored 47 goals in 88 matches for Portugal, a national record at the time of his retirement. He played for his country in two World Cups and two European Championships.

Club career

Early years and Spain

Born in Ponta Delgada, São Miguel Island in the Azores, Pauleta started his career with local clubs in his native region, before turning professional in the lower leagues. He was part of FC Porto's youth team for a brief stint yet left soon due to homesickness, signing his first professional contract with CU Micaelense in 1994 and spending one year there. He then moved to second division's G.D. Estoril Praia in 1995, helping them to the 12th position in his first and only season.

The goals continued to flow following a switch to Spanish second level side UD Salamanca in 1996, with Pauleta scoring 19 goals as it gained promotion to La Liga in the following year, adding a further 15 in his first season in the top flight. That rate earned him a move to Deportivo de La Coruña, in summer 1998.

Pauleta scored his first goal in European competition in the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup, netting in a 3–1 home win against Montpellier HSC and repea

Unlike its Iberian Neighbor Spain, Football took some to have a significant impact on its culture and psyche.

For decades International Football would be restricted to a handful of matches per year (many against Spain).

Players who stood out in these ‘pre-historic’ decades of 1920s through 1940s were not Superstar caliber nor were the teams (International or otherwise)

Naturally Spain started making tremendous strides in Football (on and off the pitch) in the 1950s with the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona taking center stage.

Socially and Politically, Portugal was governed by a Dictatorship and unbelievably was still a Colonial Empire.

Throughout the decade of 1960s and into the next, Portugal would fight to hold onto its remaining African Colonies: Angola, Mozambique and Guinea.

It was around this backdrop that Portugal’s Football ascent in the modern era took place.

Portugal’s entry into the elite of the Football World was not achieved initially at International level but at Club level and by a Hungarian Manager.

Bela Guttmann, the Well-Traveled Hungarian Manager, had been appointed as Manager of Lisbon’s Benfica in 1959 just after having led rivals Porto to the League title.

In his first season at Benfica, he won the League title as well to gain entry in the Champions Cup that had been the sole property of Real Madrid in its first five years.

Guttmann led Benfica to the Final of the Champions Cup for the 1960/61 season. The Final on May 31, 1961 was played in Bern, Switzerland and initially the odds were against Benfica as they were to face Barcelona who had become the first team ever to eliminate Real Madrid in the competition.