Pauleta

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Pauleta
Personal information
Full name	Pedro Miguel Carreiro Resendes
Date of birth	April 28, 1973 (age 33)
Place of birth	Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal
Nickname	Pauleta, L'Aigle des Açores (The Eagle of the Azores), Ciclone dos Açores (Azores Cyclone)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Paris Saint-Germain
Number	9
Youth clubs
1991 1992-1994 1994	Santa Clara, Ponta Delgada Operário, Azores Angrense, Azores
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1994-1995 1995-1996 1996-1998 1998-2000 2000-2003 2003-	União Micaelense Estoril-Praia UD Salamanca Deportivo de La Coruña Girondins de Bordeaux Paris Saint-Germain	0 (0) 30 (19) 71 (34) 58 (18) 98 (65) 131 (63)
National team2
1997-2006	Portugal	89 (47)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of March 10, 2007. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of July 9, 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Pedro Miguel Carreiro Resendes, OIH (born April 28, 1973 in Ponta Delgada, Azores), nicknamed Pauleta (pron. IPA: [pau'letɐ]), is a Portuguese professional football player. He is a striker who currently plays for the French club Paris Saint-Germain, where he is team captain. He is the leading scorer for the Portuguese national team, having scored 47 goals in 89 matches. Pauleta played for his country in Euro 2000, the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2004, and the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Contents 1 Playing style 2 Clubs 3 National team 4 Honours 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Playing style

The striker's killer instinct is married to a deft touch with either foot, impressive aerial ability and excellent mobility. "Pauleta is a fighter, very strong and completely unpredictable," said his former coach at Paris Saint-Germain FC, Vahid Halihodzic.

He is also known for his goal celebration, in which he fully extends both arms and imitates soaring like a graceful goshawk. Its purpose is out of respect for the Azores, the islands off the coast of Portugal where he was born, and named after that bird.

[edit] Clubs

Pauleta started his career at youth level playing for local clubs in the Azores, before turning professional with lower league clubs and working his way up the ranks. Pauleta signed his first professional contract with União Micaelense in 1994, spending a season at the club. He then moved to CD Estoril-Praia in 1995, scoring 19 goals in 30 league games.

The goals continued to flow following a switch to Spanish lower-league club UD Salamanca in 1996. Pauleta struck 19 times as the Spanish club gained promotion to the top-flight Spanish La Liga championship in 1997. He scored a further 15 times in his first season in the La Liga. That scoring rate earned a move to RC Deportivo La Coruña in 1998. Pauleta enjoyed a two-year spell with the Galician team, hitting 33 goals in 92 matches, including eight from 12 starts as Deportivo won their first La Liga championship title in the 1999/0000 season.

Pauleta joined Girondins de Bordeaux in the top-flight French Ligue 1 division in September 2000, and enjoyed an impressive run with Girondins Bordeaux in his first season. He scored a debut hat-trick as Bordeaux crushed FC Nantes Atlantique 5-0. He ended as Ligue 1's leading scorer with 21 goals in the 2001/2002 season. Subsequently, Pauleta was voted 2002 "Ligue 1 Footballer of the Year by fellow players and coaches. In total, he registered 65 league goals in 98 games for Bordeaux and went on to win a second "Ligue 1 Footballer of the Year" award.

He joined Paris Saint-Germain ahead of the 2003/2004 season, signing a three-year contract in a reported €12m transfer deal. He helped the Parisians to their first silverware in six years, by scoring the only goal of the 2004 French Cup final against LB Châteauroux. Pauleta continued his goal scoring in Ligue 1, registering 18 goals in 37 games, as PSG finished the league in second place. On April 2, 2006 Pauleta scored his first hat-trick for Paris Saint-Germain against former club Girondins de Bordeaux, as Paris Saint-Germain won 3-1. Despite interest from defending French champions Olympique Lyonnais, Pauleta stayed at Paris-Saint Germain as he helped Paris clinch the 2006 French Cup title.

Pauleta has now claimed that he will retire from football in 2008. He states that his biggest regret is that he never got to play for the big 3 clubs (Barcelona, AC Milan and Real Madrid).^[1]

[edit] National team

Pauleta was the first Portuguese national team player to never have played in Portugal's top-flight Portuguese Liga when he made his Portugal debut against Armenia in August 1997. He would have to wait 18 months for his first national team start, against the Netherlands. His first goals came a month later, when he scored two in a 7-0 rout of Azerbaijan.

A substitute at the Euro 2000 tournament, he led the Portuguese attack at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Pauleta scored a hat-trick against Poland, and ended up scoring three times in as many games at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Although he played all but one game on the road to the Euro 2004 final, he did not score in that tournament. Despite not scoring regularly at the big tournaments, he was one of the most prolific goal scorers in the Portuguese national team. On 12 October 2005, against Latvia, he became the national team's all-time goal scoring leader, surpassing Eusébio's previous record of 41 goals.

Pauleta was the European top scorer in the qualifying games for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In a friendly match against Cape Verde in May 2006, preluding the final World Cup tournament, Pauleta showed great form as he found the net three times in a Portuguese 4-1 win. He scored the first goal for Portugal in the World Cup game against Angola, but failed to find the net again during the tournament. After Portugal's defeat to Germany in the third place play-off game, Pauleta announced his international retirement.

[edit] Honours

• 1995 Top goal scorer in Portuguese 2nd Division
• 2000 Spanish La Liga
• 2002 French League Cup
• 2004, 2006 French Cup
• 2005 Third highest goal scorer in Ligue 1 season 2004-5
• 2004 Euro Cup 2004 Finalist
• 2006 Top goal scorer in Ligue 1 season 2005-6
• 2006 Top goal Scorer during the qualifications for the World Cup 2006
• 2006 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place

[edit] References

• 1. ^ [1]
  Pauleta announces retirement date

[edit] External links

• (French) PSG profile
• Career stats at L'Equipe

	Portugal squad - 2000 European Football Championship Semi-finalists
1 Baía | 2 J. Costa | 3 Rui Jorge | 4 Vidigal | 5 F. Couto | 6 Paulo Sousa | 7 Figo | 8 João Pinto | 9 Sá Pinto | 10 Rui Costa | 11 S. Conceição | 12 P. Espinha | 13 Dimas | 14 Abel Xavier | 15 Costinha | 16 Beto | 17 P. Bento | 18 Pauleta | 19 Capucho | 20 Secretário | 21 Nuno Gomes | 22 Quim | Coach: Humberto Coelho

	Portugal squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup
1 Baía | 2 J. Costa | 3 Abel Xavier | 4 Caneira | 5 F. Couto | 6 Paulo Sousa | 7 Figo | 8 João Pinto | 9 Pauleta | 10 Rui Costa | 11 S. Conceição | 12 H. Viana | 13 J. Andrade | 14 P. Barbosa | 15 Nélson | 16 Ricardo | 17 P. Bento | 18 Frechaut | 19 Capucho | 20 Petit | 21 Nuno Gomes | 22 Beto | 23 Rui Jorge | Coach: Oliveira

	Portugal squad - 2004 European Football Championship Runners-Up
1 Ricardo | 2 P. Ferreira | 3 Rui Jorge | 4 J. Andrade | 5 F. Couto | 6 Costinha | 7 Figo | 8 Petit | 9 Pauleta | 10 Rui Costa | 11 Simão | 12 Quim | 13 Miguel | 14 N. Valente | 15 Beto | 16 R. Carvalho | 17 C. Ronaldo | 18 Maniche | 19 Tiago | 20 Deco | 21 Nuno Gomes | 22 Moreira | 23 H. Postiga | Coach: Scolari

	Portugal squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place
1 Ricardo | 2 P. Ferreira | 3 Caneira | 4 R. Costa | 5 Meira | 6 Costinha | 7 Figo | 8 Petit | 9 Pauleta | 10 H. Viana | 11 Simão | 12 Quim | 13 Miguel | 14 N. Valente | 15 Boa Morte | 16 R. Carvalho | 17 C. Ronaldo | 18 Maniche | 19 Tiago | 20 Deco | 21 Nuno Gomes | 22 P. Santos | 23 H. Postiga | Coach: Scolari

Paris Saint-Germain FC - Current Squad
1 Landreau | 4 Rozehnal | 5 Mendy | 6 Yepes | 7 Luyindula | 8 Cissé | 9 Pauleta | 10 Gallardo | 11 Diané | 12 Mabiala | 13 Frau | 14 N'Gog | 15 Kalou | 16 Alonzo | 17 Traoré | 18 Pietre | 19 Mulumbu | 20 Chantôme | 21 Rodriguez | 22 Armand | 23 Clément | 24 Hellebuyck | 25 Rothen | 26 Dramé | 27 Baning | 30 Cousin | 31 Owono | 32 Boli | 33 Ngoyi | Manager: Le Guen