Miguel Veloso

Miguel Veloso

Veloso with Portugal at Euro 2012
Personal information
Full name	Miguel Luís Pinto Veloso
Date of birth	(1986-05-11) 11 May 1986
Place of birth	Coimbra, Portugal
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Dynamo Kyiv
Number	4
Youth career
1994–1999	Benfica
1999–2000	CAC Pontinha
2000–2005	Sporting CP
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2005–2010	Sporting CP	98	(4)
2005–2006	→ Olivais Moscavide (loan)	28	(7)
2010–2012	Genoa	49	(2)
2012–	Dynamo Kyiv	37	(2)
National team‡
2006–2008	Portugal U21	10	(1)
2007–	Portugal	43	(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 2 December 2013. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 15 October 2013

Miguel Luís Pinto Veloso (Portuguese pronunciation: [miˈɣɛɫ ˈlwiʃ ˈpĩtu vɨˈlozu]; born 11 May 1986) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for FC Dynamo Kyiv in Ukraine and the Portuguese national team. Mainly a defensive midfielder, he can also operate as an offensive left back.

Club career

Born in Coimbra, Miguel Veloso started his football career at S.L. Benfica, but was rejected for being slightly overweight at the time. Later, at the age of 13, he entered Lisbon neighbours Sporting Clube de Portugal's youth system. There, he was promoted to the first team for the 2004–05 pre-season, which took place mainly in England; he started out as a central defender.^[1][2]

In order to give him more playing time, Sporting loaned Veloso to Clube Desportivo Olivais e Moscavide in the third division, and he helped it promote to the second level with a career-best seven goals. As a result he was recalled by the Lions – though it appeared difficult for him to grab a place in the starting team, because of the presence of players with much more experience such as Ânderson Polga, Tonel, Marco Caneira or Custódio – and ended up playing 23 league matches during the campaign, as Sporting (again) finished second. He was equally impressive in his debut in the UEFA Champions League, a 1–0 home win against Inter Milan 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 2007–08 Veloso was ever-present in Sporting's central midfield, alongside another club youth graduate, João Moutinho. The club again lost the league to F.C. Porto, and the same befell in the following season, with the player being involved in some run-ins with manager Paulo Bento;^[3] in the previous off-season and following January transfer window, he attracted interest from several Premier League clubs, but nothing materialized.^[4][5][6]

Veloso helped Sporting reach the last-16 in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League, after scoring in both legs of the 4–2 aggregate win against Everton;^[7][8] the club could only, however, finish fourth in the domestic league.

On 30 July 2010, Veloso was sold to Genoa C.F.C. in Italy.^[9] On 4 July 2012 he moved teams and countries again, signing a four-year contract with FC Dynamo Kyiv in the Ukrainian Premier League.^[10][11]

International career

On 14 August 2007, following impressive performances for Portugal's under-21 side in the 2007 UEFA European Football Championship in June (the skipper scored twice in three games, albeit in a group stage exit),^[12] Veloso was called up for the full squad for the first time, for a Euro 2008 qualifier against Armenia. He would make his international debut against Azerbaijan on 13 October.

In the tournament finals' 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. After a long spell out of the Portugal squad, he was recalled by coach Carlos Queiroz for a vital 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Denmark in September 2009 (1–1 draw). He netted his first international goal in the same competition, as the national side defeated Malta 4–0 in Guimarães, on 14 October.

Miguel Veloso: International goals

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	14 October 2009	Estádio D. Afonso Henriques, Guimarães, Portugal	Malta	3–0	4–0	2010 World Cup qualification
2	15 November 2011	Estádio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal	Bosnia and Herzegovina	5–2	6–2	Euro 2012 qualifying play-offs

Honours

Club

Olivais e Moscavide

• Portuguese Second Division: 2005–06

Sporting

• Taça de Portugal: 2006–07, 2007–08
• Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira: 2007, 2008
• Taça da Liga: Runner-up 2007–08, 2008–09

Country

• UEFA European Under-17 Championship: 2003

Club statistics

Personal

Veloso's father, António, was also a footballer. A defender, he played 15 professional seasons for Benfica, and was also a longtime Portuguese international.^[3][13]

References

External links

• Stats and profile at Zerozero
• Stats at ForaDeJogo
• PortuGOAL profile
• Miguel Veloso at National-Football-Teams.com

Portugal squads v t e Portugal squad – UEFA Euro 2008 1 Ricardo 2 Ferreira 3 Bruno Alves 4 Bosingwa 5 Meira 6 Meireles 7 C. Ronaldo 8 Petit 9 H. Almeida 10 J. Moutinho 11 Simão 12 Nuno 13 Miguel 14 Ribeiro 15 Pepe 16 Carvalho 17 Quaresma 18 Veloso 19 Nani 20 Deco 21 Nuno Gomes (c) 22 Patrício 23 H. Postiga Coach: Scolari v t e Portugal squad – 2010 FIFA World Cup 1 Eduardo 2 Bruno Alves 3 Ferreira 4 Rolando 5 Duda 6 Carvalho 7 C. Ronaldo (c) 8 P. Mendes 9 Liédson 10 Danny 11 Simão 12 Beto 13 Miguel 14 Veloso 15 Pepe 16 Meireles 17 Amorim 18 H. Almeida 19 Tiago 20 Deco 21 Costa 22 D. Fernandes 23 Coentrão Coach: Queiroz v t e Portugal squad – UEFA Euro 2012 semi-finalists 1 Eduardo 2 B. Alves 3 Pepe 4 Veloso 5 Coentrão 6 Custódio 7 C. Ronaldo (c) 8 Moutinho 9 H. Almeida 10 Quaresma 11 Oliveira 12 Patrício 13 R. Costa 14 Rolando 15 Micael 16 Meireles 17 Nani 18 Varela 19 M. Lopes 20 Viana 21 J. Pereira 22 Beto 23 Postiga Coach: Bento