| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Vítor Manuel Martins Baía | ||
| Date of birth | 15 October 1969 | ||
| Place of birth | São Pedro da Afurada, Portugal | ||
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||
| Playing position | Goalkeeper | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Leça | |||
| 1982–1988 | Porto | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1988–1996 | Porto | 246 | (0) |
| 1996–1998 | Barcelona | 39 | (0) |
| 1999–2007 | Porto | 160 | (0) |
| Total | 445 | (0) | |
| National team | |||
| 1989–1990 | Portugal U21 | 7 | (0) |
| 1990–2002 | Portugal | 80 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Vítor Manuel Martins Baía, OIH (born 15 October 1969), is a retired Portuguese footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
His career was intimately connected with F.C. Porto, which he started representing professionally still in his teens, helping it to 26 titles, and eventually remaining with the club in an ambassadorial role.
Also having played for FC Barcelona, Baía appeared with the Portuguese national team in two European Championships and the 2002 World Cup.
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Born in São Pedro da Afurada, Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto District, Baía joined F.C. Porto's youth ranks at thirteen, from also northern club Leça FC.[1] In early 1989, he renounced to appear at the FIFA World Youth Championship, as he had relegated Pole Józef Młynarczyk to the bench and his club was still chasing the league title, which eventually eluded them (second place).
Baía made his first-team debuts in a game against Vítoria de Guimarães, and did not lose his starting place for the following seven seasons, winning five leagues and two domestic cups, and conceding only 116 goals (16,5 goals per year).[2] It was between 1994 and 1996 that Baía made his name as a world-class goalkeeper, being voted for the "ESM Team of the Year" after the 1994–95 season, and being named in the "IFFHS' World's Best Goalkeeper of the Year 1995" list, finishing sixth in the voting,[3] and improving to fifth in the following year.[4] Consequently he was named in the Portuguese squad for Euro 1996, being transferred after this tournament to Spain's FC Barcelona, for the highest amount paid for a player in the position in the world.[2]
While he only missed one La Liga game in his first season, as Barcelona finished second to Real Madrid, adding the season's UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, Baía also suffered from knee problems during his two 1/2-year spell.
Additionally, when Louis van Gaal took over at Barcelona for Bobby Robson, he was dropped from the team in favour of the manager's countryman Ruud Hesp, being subsequently loaned in mid-season back to Porto, filling the position some said he had "haunted" since his departure, as several goalkeepers had failed to perform in that position.
In my opinion, no country can afford not to call the best European goalkeeper to its team, but that happened to me.[1]
In January 1999, Baía returned to Porto, finding the #1 jersey unavailable, so he picked #99 instead, with the sales of that number being a success,[1] as well as the club's game attendances, highly related to the player's return.[1] When his career seemed back on track, he was injured again during the 1999–2000 season, needing a corrective surgery on his knee.[5]
In the 2000 summer, Baía returned to Barcelona, being immediately released and signing with Porto.[6] After one season without playing due to injury, he made his comeback in 2001–02, in a reserves match against Vila Real, on 26 November 2001.[7] Sixteen days later, on 12 December, he made his competitive debut, against C.D. Santa Clara for the cup.[8] After a full recovery, he was included in the list for the 2002 World Cup.[9]
In the 2002–03 season, Baía was in a great shape again, helping his club win the league title, the cup and the UEFA Cup, appearing in 11 of 13 matches in the latter competition, including the semifinals against S.S. Lazio where he saved a penalty kick, and the final against Celtic.[10]
It would not be until the 2003–04 season when Baía would regain full fitness again, and he would have one of the most impressive seasons of his career, winning the UEFA Champions League and his seventh league trophy. In the former competition, he played all matches and minutes, as Porto beat AS Monaco FC in the final (3–0).[10] Consequently, he was selected as the "UEFA Club Best Goalkeeper of the Year",[11] being the first Portuguese goalkeeper to win this individual title; this was not, however, good enough for Euro 2004 – played on home soil – selection, with Sporting Clube de Portugal's Ricardo Pereira being controversially preferred.[12] Later, in 2007, in a FIFA.com interview, Baía said: "(...) It's kind of strange because I was voted as being the best goalkeeper in Europe in the 2003/04 season and a few days before the squad for UEFA EURO 2004 was announced I'd won the Portuguese championship and the UEFA Champions League and even then I wasn't called up."[1] At the end of the season, he was named in the list for "IFFHS' World's Best Goalkeeper of the Year 2004", finishing 8th in the voting, while Ricardo finished in 19th place.[13]
At the start of 2005–06, under Dutch coach Co Adriaanse, Baía initially started the season, but lost his status midway through, being replaced by Brazilian Helton. Although he was a part of the 2006–07 squad that won Porto's second league in a row, Baía, in the last year of his contract, would make only one league start, on the final day of the season, a 4–1 home win against Desportivo das Aves, which would be his 700th official appearance, overall. Upon retiring at nearly 38, on 14 June 2007,[14] he became director of public relations with his main club,[1] leaving the post in late July 2010. He and Italian Stefano Tacconi were the only goalkeepers in history to have won the three main UEFA club competitions.
Baía had his senior debut on 19 December 1990, in a 1–0 friendly win over the United States, at the age of only 20. He went on to make 80 appearances for the national team until 2002, playing in all the games in UEFA Euro 1996 and 2000 (except one in the latter, as Portugal was already qualified) and in the 2002 FIFA World Cup. In Euro 2000, he stopped Arif Erdem's penalty, as the national team defeated Turkey in the quarterfinals (2–0).
After the failure in the 2002 World Cup, coach António Oliveira was sacked when he refused to quit. In his place, Luiz Felipe Scolari was hired, and Baía, a stalwart for the past 10 years with a record of caps in his position, was ditched.[15]
| Club | League | Season | League | Cup | Europe | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | |||
| Porto | Portuguese League | 1988–89 | 15 | 0 | * | * | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1989–90 | 34 | 0 | * | * | 6 | 0 | ||||
| 1990–91 | 38 | 0 | * | * | 6 | 0 | ||||
| 1991–92 | 34 | 0 | * | * | 4 | 0 | ||||
| 1992–93 | 34 | 0 | * | * | 10 | 0 | ||||
| 1993–94 | 32 | 0 | * | * | 11 | 0 | ||||
| 1994–95 | 33 | 0 | * | * | 6 | 0 | ||||
| 1995–96 | 26 | 0 | * | * | 6 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 246 | 0 | * | * | 49 | 0 | ||||
| Barcelona | Spanish League | 1996–97 | 37 | 0 | * | * | 8 | 0 | ||
| 1997–98 | 2 | 0 | * | * | 1 | 0 | ||||
| 1998–99 | 0 | 0 | * | * | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 39 | 0 | * | * | 9 | 0 | ||||
| Porto | Portuguese League | 1998–99 | 16 | 0 | * | * | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1999–00 | 15 | 0 | * | * | 9 | 0 | ||||
| 2000–01 | 0 | 0 | * | * | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 2001–02 | 17 | 0 | * | * | 2 | 0 | ||||
| 2002–03 | 25 | 0 | * | * | 11 | 0 | ||||
| 2003–04 | 31 | 0 | * | * | 13 | 0 | ||||
| 2004–05 | 31 | 0 | * | * | 6 | 0 | ||||
| 2005–06 | 24 | 0 | * | * | 6 | 0 | ||||
| 2006–07 | 1 | 0 | * | * | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 160 | 0 | * | * | 47 | 0 | ||||
| Career total | 445 | 0 | * | * | 105 | 0 | ||||
| Last Update: 26 April 2010 | ||||||||||
*Information not available
| Portugal national team | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Apps | Goals |
| 1990 | 1 | 0 |
| 1991 | 9 | 0 |
| 1992 | 7 | 0 |
| 1993 | 10 | 0 |
| 1994 | 5 | 0 |
| 1995 | 6 | 0 |
| 1996 | 12 | 0 |
| 1997 | 4 | 0 |
| 1998 | 6 | 0 |
| 1999 | 9 | 0 |
| 2000 | 6 | 0 |
| 2001 | 0 | 0 |
| 2002 | 5 | 0 |
| Total | 80 | 0 |
In 2004, Baía founded a charity with his wife, Alexandra Rodrigues de Almeida, which would bear his own name and would be dedicated to helping underprivileged children and troubled teens.[1][16][17]
Also that year, he would donate a pair of his autographed gloves to be included in the UEFA Jubilee time capsule, a collection of UEFA memorabilia that was sealed underground in September, only opened 50 years hence.[18]
Baía published his autobiography entitled 99 – Vítor Baía in 2005. On 10 June 2008, he was made an Officer of the Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique by president of Portugal, Aníbal Cavaco Silva.
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by João Pinto |
Portugal national football team captain 1995–2000 |
Succeeded by Fernando Couto |
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