Carlos Alberto Alves Garcia

Infobox Football biography
playername = Carlitos
fullname = Carlos Alberto Alves Garcia
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1982|9|6
cityofbirth = Lisbon
countryofbirth = Portugal
height = Height|m=1.75
position = Winger
currentclub = FC Basel
clubnumber = 30
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 2000-2002 2002-2004 2004-2007 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-
clubs = Amora FC GD Estoril-Praia Benfica → Vitória de Setúbal "(loan)" → FC Sion "(loan)" FC Basel
caps(goals) = 31 (5) 72 (13) 11 (0) 15 (4) 26 (8) 39 (10)
nationalyears = 2003 - 2004
nationalteam = Portugal U-21
nationalcaps(goals) =
pcupdate = 27 September 2008
ntupdate = 10 August 2008

Carlos Alberto Alves Garcia [His surname is "Alves Garcia", former from mother, latter from father.] (born September 6, 1982 in Lisbon), commonly known as Carlitos, is a Portuguese football winger currently playing in the Swiss Super League for FC Basel.

Football career

Carlitos started his professional career at Amora in 2000, at the early age of 17. Two years later he moved to Estoril-Praia, where he helped the team achieve its promotion to the Portuguese Liga and caught the eye of the country's biggest teams due to his strong dribbling skills and speed. In 2004, Carlitos signed with Lisbon giants SL Benfica after playing in the European Under-21 Championships in Germany with Portugal. He helped Benfica conquer it's first league title in 11 years. Nevertheless, he was not able to show the skills that made him one of Estoril's key players, playing very few matches as a result. He was loaned out to Vitória de Setúbal in the 2005-2006 season, returned to Benfica, but was loaned out again, this time around to the Swiss side FC Sion in the 2006-2007 season.

In July 2007, Carlitos was sold to Sion's Super League rivals FC Basel for a sum of €1.5 million [http://www.record.pt/noticia.asp?id=751610&idCanal=11] . His Basel debut came on July 22 2007, in a 1-0 win over FC Zürich at St. Jakob-Park. He scored FC Basel's 200th goal in European competition on December 5 2007, curling the ball into the back of the net from a free kick against SK Brann at St. Jakob-Park, which also meant that Basel could qualify for the knock-out round of 32. On August 17 2008, he scored two goals in a 4-1 win over Basel's greatest rivals, FC Zürich, at the Letzigrund.

Honours

Benfica
* SuperCup Cândido de Oliveira: 2005

Vitória
* Cup of Portugal Runner Up: 2006
* SuperCup Cândido de Oliveira Runner Up: 2006

Basel
* Swiss Cup: 2008
* Swiss Super League: 2008

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.fcb.ch/sport/show/playerDetailByID//28315/72/9/36 Profile at FC Basel] de icon
* [http://www.football.ch/sfl/777819/de/Kader.aspx?pId=707884 Profile at Swiss Football League Website] de icon