Vítor Hugo Gomes Paços

Infobox Football biography
playername = Pelé
fullname = Vítor Hugo Gomes Paços


dateofbirth = birth date and age|1987|9|14
cityofbirth = Porto
countryofbirth = Portugal
height = Height|m=1.85
position = Midfielder
currentclub = FC Porto
clubnumber = 30
youthyears = 2002-2005 2005 2006
youthclubs = SC Salgueiros SL Benfica Vitória Guimarães
years = 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-| clubs = Vitória Guimarães Internazionale FC Porto
caps(goals) = 11 (0) 15 (0) 0 (0)
nationalyears = 2007 2007-
nationalteam = Portugal U-20 Portugal U-21
nationalcaps(goals) = 5 (1)
pcupdate = May 25, 2008
ntupdate = May 25, 2008

Vítor Hugo Gomes Paços (spelled "Passos"), nicknamed Pelé (born 14 September 1987 in Porto) is a Portuguese football player. He currently plays as midfielder for F.C. Porto.

Club career

Early career

Pelé started playing at the youth teams of Sport Comércio e Salgueiros in Porto. Due to the financial crisis of the club, which led to the administrative descent to the Portuguese second division. The prohibition of signing professional players led to almost every player in the squad leaving the club. In the 2004–05 season, Salgueiros senior squad was constituted primarily of 16-17 year old youth players, including Pelé. Despite winning only one game and drawing other two games during the entire season, Pelé performances caught attention. Along with team mate Joel, they signed for Sport Lisboa e Benfica in a controversial free transfer as the players were to move to Boavista F.C. which was willing to financially help Salgueiros. Instead, Benfica signed the players and the Paranhos side didn't get any compensation.

Benfica

Pelé played for the Benfica B squad for the 2005-06 season, but did not manage to play regularly, leaving the club in December 2005 to sign for Vitória Sport Clube, in Guimarães.

Vitória de Guimarães

During the start of the 2006–07, with Vitória playing in "Liga de Honra" for the first time in decades, Pelé was a regular on the first team, but a poor start for the team and change in the team coach led him to the bench more often, as he finished the season with 11 league appearances and Guimarães achieved promotion.

Internazionale

Pelé was signed by Inter Milan in summer 2007, with a 5-year contract. He played his first official match against U.C. Sampdoria in Serie A, on September 26, 2007, and made his first start against S.S. Lazio on December 5, due to the depletion in midfield (Patrick Vieira, Dejan Stanković, Luís Figo and Olivier Dacourt were all holding injuries, three of them serious). On May 7, 2008, Pelé scored his first goal for Inter in a crucial Italian Cup semi-final against Lazio, as Internazionale won it away 2-0 (also aggregate score) to reach the final, against A.S. Roma on May 24, where he also scored from a brilliant long-range volley in a 2-1 defeat.

FC Porto

It was reported by the Portuguese media on August 31st, 2008 that Pélé was transferred to FC Porto in an exchange involving Ricardo Quaresma and €18 million. [cite web|url=http://abola.pt/nnh/ver.aspx?id=147842|title=Quaresma no Inter por 18.6 milhões|date=2008-08-31]

International career

Pelé was called in several occasions to the Portuguese U20 national team, playing in the 2007 Toulon tournament and in the FIFA U-20 World Cup. He has also played for Portugal national under-21 football team since summer 2007.

Honours

* Serie A 2006/2007, 2007/2008

External links

* [http://www.zerozero.eu/uk/jogador.php?id=15694&search=1 Stats and profile at zerozero.pt]
* [http://www.lpfp.pt/Liga_vitalis/pages/pessoa.aspx?epoca=20062007&clube=vguimaraes&jogador=1915]