António Luís Alves Ribeiro Oliveira

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António Luís Alves Ribeiro Oliveira (born June 10, 1952 in Penafiel, Portugal; pron. IPA: [ɐ̃'tɔniu oli'vɐiɾɐ]) is a former footballer and manager, now a businessman and president of SuperLiga club FC Penafiel.

[edit] As a player

Oliveira appeared young on FC Porto at the age of 15, after more than positive recommendations from the youth teams. A very skilled forward, he was the main stars of the side that recaptured the title in the 77-78 season, ending a 20-year drought, which earned him a transfer to Real Betis, but he was unsuccessful and returned to Porto. However, the tides were changing, as both Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa and Pedroto left Porto after internal problems with Americo de Sá. He joined Penafiel as a player-manager (still being called up for international matches), and then ended his career in Sporting CP.

Pedroto, the legendary Portuguese manager praised him as One of the best all-time players. By the time of his retirement, he was capped 29 times.

[edit] As manager

Oliveira had two terms in the national team: first during the whole Euro 1996 campaign and then for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. While he brought the national team again to a major competition (after notable failures such as the USA'94 campaign led by Carlos Queiróz) in the European tournament he was knocked out against soon-to-be finalists Czech Republic in the quarter-finals.

Several problems appeared in his second term. While the qualifying stage was unusually smooth, several problems and poorly seen changes occurred during the preparation and tournament - Vítor Baía replaced Ricardo in goal, Beto played right defender instead of Frechaut or Abel Xavier, Luís Figo playing in terrible physical condition, Costinha was left outside the final 22, placing Petit alone against USA, calling Hugo Viana as a last minute replacement for Daniel Kenedy (who tested positive in a doping control test) and several bad decisions in the final game against South Korea, and Portugal ended the tournament third in a group, an underachievement for what was believed to be on the "black horses" in the competition. He was fired after the World Cup, but the actual scenario beyond the bad results is still unknown.

[edit] As businessman and president

With his brother, he owned Olivedesportos, which controls most media related to football in Portugal, and due to that and many stories and rumours, he is seen as a "shady" character, even by Porto fans. Hours before Pinto da Costa was included in the Golden Whistle affair he acquired enough stocks to become the top private investor in the FC Porto SAD. One season before this, he won the presidency of Penafiel, and the club climbed from the League of Honour to the SuperLiga, where against most odds they finished the league placed 11th, well above the relegation mark.

	Portugal squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup
1 Baía | 2 J. Costa | 3 Xavier | 4 Caneira | 5 Couto | 6 Sousa | 7 Figo | 8 Pinto | 9 Pauleta | 10 Rui Costa | 11 Conceição | 12 Viana | 13 Andrade | 14 Barbosa | 15 Nélson | 16 Ricardo | 17 Bento | 18 Frechaut | 19 Capucho | 20 Petit | 21 Nuno Gomes | 22 Beto | 23 Rui Jorge | Coach: Oliveira