Rui Patrício

Rui Patrício

Patrício in action for Sporting
Personal information
Full name	Rui Pedro dos Santos Patrício
Date of birth	(1988-02-15) 15 February 1988
Place of birth	Marrazes, Portugal
Height	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Sporting CP
Number	1
Youth career
1998–1999	Leiria Marrazes
1999–2006	Sporting CP
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2006–	Sporting CP	177	(0)
National team‡
2006–2007	Portugal U19	10	(0)
2007–2008	Portugal U20	8	(0)
2007–2010	Portugal U21	12	(0)
2009	Portugal U23	1	(0)
2010–	Portugal	29	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 04:05, 10 December 2013 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 04:05, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Rui Pedro dos Santos Patrício (born 15 February 1988) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Sporting Clube de Portugal as a goalkeeper.

Club career

Born in Marrazes, Leiria, Patrício played as a striker at a young age. Reportedly, a Sporting Clube de Portugal scout was in the area and saw him play in goal, being impressed enough to sign the 11-year-old to the club's youth academy. He made his first division debut on 19 November 2006, in a 1–0 away win against C.S. Marítimo in the 10th round: standing in for habitual club and country first-choice Ricardo, he saved a penalty kick 15 minutes before the end of the game.^[1]

In the 2007–08 season, after Ricardo's departure to Real Betis, Patrício beat competition from Sporting veteran Tiago and new signing Vladimir Stojković to become the undisputed starter. On 27 November 2007 he made his UEFA Champions League debut, in a 1–2 group stage loss at Manchester United.

During the 2008 off-season, Patrício was the subject of a rumored transfer to Italian giants Inter Milan.^[2] However, nothing came of it and, in that year's Portuguese Supercup final, against F.C. Porto, he stopped a Lucho González penalty in a 2–0 final win,^[3] also being an everpresent fixture in the league.

In the qualifying rounds of the 2009–10 Champions League, at FC Twente, Sporting were trailing 0–1 in the 94th minute, after a 0–0 tie in the first leg: Patrício rushed to the opposing area for a corner kick, he went up for a header with Nikita Rukavytsya, both players seemed to make contact with the ball, and it was helped into the net for an own goal via the boot of Peter Wisgerhof, as Sporting eventually qualified for the last games prior to the group stage.^[4]

On 20 December 2012, Patrício was awarded Sporting's Footballer of the Year award for a second consecutive year.^[5][6]

International career

Patrício playing for Portugal

From 2007, Patrício started appearing for the under-21 side. On 29 January of the following year, senior team coach Luiz Felipe Scolari called him for a 1–3 friendly defeat against Italy in Zürich,^[7] although he did not leave the bench; on 12 May he was picked to the national squad for UEFA Euro 2008, but did not play in the tournament.

Although not part of the provisional 24-player list for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa,^[8][9] Patrício was named in a backup list of six players.^[10] He made his debut on 17 November 2010, playing the second half of a 4–0 friendly win with Spain.

After Eduardo was relegated to the bench at his new club, S.L. Benfica, Patrício became the starter under national team boss Paulo Bento, and both players finished the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign with five games (450 minutes) as Portugal qualified for the final stages. He was the starter in the finals in Poland and Ukraine, conceding four goals in five matches in an eventual semifinal exit.

Honours

Club

• Taça de Portugal: 2006–07, 2007–08; Runner-up 2011–12
• Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira: 2007, 2008
• Taça da Liga: Runner-up 2007–08, 2008–09

Individual

• SJPF Player of the Month: April 2011
• SJPF Young Player of the Month: January 2008, April 2009, November 2010, March 2011, April 2011
• LPFP Primeira Liga Goalkeeper of the Year: 2011–12
• Sporting CP Footballer of the Year: 2011, 2012

Club statistics

As of 11 December 2013

References

External links

• Stats and profile at Zerozero
• Stats at ForaDeJogo
• PortuGOAL profile
• Rui Patrício at National-Football-Teams.com
• Transfermarkt profile

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 – 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