Ricardo Rocha (Portuguese footballer)

Football player infobox
playername = Ricardo Rocha


fullname = Ricardo Sérgio Rocha Azevedo
height = height|m=1.83
nickname = Ricky
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1978|10|3
cityofbirth = Santo Tirso
countryofbirth = Portugal
currentclub = Tottenham Hotspur
clubnumber =
position = Defender
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1998–2000 2000–2001 2002–2007 2007–
clubs = Famalicão Sporting Braga Benfica Tottenham Hotspur
caps(goals) = 061 (4) 044 (2) 115 (3) 014 (0)
nationalyears = 2002–
nationalteam = Portugal
nationalcaps(goals) = 006 (0)
pcupdate = 22:09, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
ntupdate = October 11, 2006:"For other people of this name, see Ricardo Rocha (disambiguation)."Ricardo Rocha (born October 3, 1978, full name Ricardo Sérgio Rocha Azevedo) is a Portuguese football defender. Born in Santo Tirso, he is currently playing for Tottenham Hotspur.

Club career

Having made a name for himself with perennial UEFA Cup qualification candidates SC Braga, he moved to giant SL Benfica in December 2001, along with teammate Tiago, and developed into a fierce stopper with good marking ability. During his 4 and a half seasons playing for Benfica, he made a total of 162 appearances and scored 3 goals. Among these appearances, there are a total of 33 matches in all different European cups.

On January 17th 2007 stories hit the Portuguese and English media confirming that a move to Tottenham Hotspur was a possibility. The following day the Portuguese media reported that the move was imminent following a meeting in Lisbon between the Tottenham chairman, former Tottenham player and now agent Ronny Rosenthal and the Benfica president with a price of €5million (£3.2m) plus two friendlies between the clubs, with Benfica receiving all profits from the gate receipts and television money.

Rocha was signed by Tottenham Hotspur for an undiclosed fee thought to be around £3.3 million on a three-and-half-year deal on 23 January 2007.cite news
title = Spurs snap up Portugal star Rocha
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/6291111.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date = 2007-01-23
accessdate = 2007-04-01]

Rocha played his first game for Tottenham on the 27th of January 2007 in the 3-1 win over Southend in the FA cup 4th round in place of captain Ledley King who was out injured at the time. On February 10 he played his first Premiership match for Tottenham against Sheffield Utd. On 14 May 2008 it was reported that Rocha had requested a transfer after having failed to break into the first team. [cite news| title = Spurs defender wants to leave| url = http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/search/display.var.2269845.0.spurs_defender_wants_to_leave.php| publisher = Epping Forest Guardian| date = 2008-05-14| accessdate = 2008-05-14]

International career

After making his full team debuts in 2002 against Scotland, he was also called up for Portugal in the Euro 2008 qualifiers against Finland and Denmark, after a three-year absence, due to the fact he was not always starter at Benfica.

Honours

Benfica
*Portuguese Cup: 2003/04
*Portuguese Liga: 2004/05
*Portuguese SuperCup: 2004/05

References

External links

*soccerbase|id=34010|name=Ricardo Rocha
* [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/Players/Player=71964/index.html short biography] at UEFA.com
* [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/news/Kind=1/newsId=410705.html/ UEFA page on Rocha vs Ronaldinho] at UEFA.com