Rui Barros

Football player infobox2 | playername= Rui Barros


fullname = Rui Gil Soares de Barros
nickname =
dateofbirth = Birth date and age|1965|11|24|mf=y
cityofbirth = Lordelo
countryofbirth = Portugal
height = 159 cm
currentclub = Retired
position = Attacking Midfielder
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years =1985-86 1986-87 1987-88 1988-90 1990-93 1993-94 1994-00
clubs = S.C. Covilhã Varzim SC FC Porto Juventus AS Monaco Ol. Marseille FC Porto
caps(goals) = ? (?) 23 (6) 34 (12) 60 (14) 81 (14) 17 (4) 134 (25)
nationalyears = 1987-1996
nationalteam = Portugal
nationalcaps(goals) = 36 (4)
pcupdate =
ntupdate =

Rui Gil Soares de Barros (born Paredes, November 24, 1965) was a Portuguese footballer and is currently a coach. The short-statured offensive midfielder is often regarded as the best Portuguese football player of his generation, after Paulo Futre.

Football Player Career

Barros first played for S.C. Covilhã, on loan from Futebol Clube do Porto, for the season of 1985/1986, but was traded to Varzim, a minor I Division team in Póvoa de Varzim, the following season. Here, he was noticed by Portugal national football team and made his debut on March 29, 1987, in Funchal, at a qualifying match for Euro 1988. The result was a dramatic 2-2 draw against the weak squad of Malta. Barros played during the second half and would go on to have 36 caps for the National Team over the next nine years, scoring four goals. He was considered the Portuguese Footballer of the Year in 1988.

The following season, he moved back to F.C. Porto and achieved the status of a leading man in the team that won both the Intercontinental Cup against Club Atlético Peñarol in 1987, and the European Supercup against the Dutch team, Ajax Amsterdam.

Barros signed with Juventus for the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons. While he was a leading figure for this team, he missed the qualification for the 1990 World Cup by a few points. When that season was over, he moved again and joined AS Monaco FC, where he signed for the 1990-91 season but ended up staying through 1993. In Monaco, he lost a Cup Winners Cup final to the German team Werder Bremen in 1992 and was transferred to the French team Marseille for the 1993-94 season, a difficult time for Barros, due to the team relegation to the French II Division, after a fixed results scandal.

Finally, in 1994-95, he returned to play for F.C. Porto for the third time, were he spent the final years of his career. He wasn't in the best shape of his career but was a regular player for F.C. Porto, who won five National Champions titles, in a row, from 1994-95 to 1998-99. Barros officially left professional football after the 1999-2000 season at age 34.

He played a few more times for the Portuguese National Team, after his return to Portugal, and for many, it was a terrible injustice that coach António Oliveira preferred the young and soon forgotten player, Hugo Porfírio, over him, as one of the members of the National Team that went to the Euro 1996 finals, in England.

He had two more games for Portugal National Team the following season. The last game he played ended in a 0-0 draw with Germany, at Lisbon on December 14 1996, in the World Cup qualifyings, aged 31.

Coach career

Rui Barros is now working as an assistant coach at FC Porto. After Co Adriaanse resigned as manager of the club in August 2006, during the preseason, he became the temporary manager for 2 games: 2 wins against Portsmouth F.C. (2-1) and Manchester City (1-0) in England.

Rui Barros coached FC Porto in the Portuguese Super Cup match against Vitória de Setubal, in what was his first trophy as a Head Coach. The manager position was taken over by Jesualdo Ferreira, with Barros staying in as assistant manager.

External links

* [http://barrosedintorni.splinder.com Barros e dintorni/ Italian blog dedicated to Rui Barros (In Italian)]