The path to fame is difficult and thorny, and even more so when it comes to the glory of a football idol. You need to have willpower and a strong character in order to break into the top of the football Olympus. It is these qualities that characterize the Portuguese midfielder João Moutinho. Thanks to his perseverance and hard work, he was able to reach the heights that many continue to dream of.
Carier start
In the Portuguese city of Portimão on September 8, 1986, a new national and world football star was born - João Moutinho. The age of a football player today is 30 years (this year he celebrates a round date). Since childhood, keen on football, like many Portuguese boys, he played for the local football team until the age of 13. In 1994, João was enrolled in the academy of the local club Portimonence as a promising child. Thanks to his zeal and desire to study, in his first 5 years at the academy, João Moutinho became the best student and rightly so moved to the Sporting Academy in 1999.
Over the next 6 years, the future star of Portuguese football actively trained along with other youth teams, thereby gaining the right to switch to professional football.
First club
The first club the young João Moutinho signed his contract with was Sporting. This happened in the summer of 2005 and marked the beginning of a professional football career. In the debut season of 2005/2006, João several times entered the field in the first team and got a chance to firmly take a place in the team. He was very convincing in his game, and the coach of “Sporting” more and more often released a young player at the base.
Professional growth at the Lisbon Sporting continued for João Moutinho until 2010. The result - 21 goals and 163 matches in the main team.
The Porto Football Club has long been closely monitoring the success of the young midfielder, and in the summer of 2010 a five-year contract was signed with a football player, according to which João Moutinho joined the ranks of Porto for a long time.
“Sporting” received 11 million euros for his former player and an excellent pupil. The money that the team spent on training João returned with huge profits.
Careers in Porto
Arriving at the eminent club, João Moutinho immediately started training before the start of a new gaming season. Andrei Villas Boash, who at that time was the head coach of Porto, took a closer look at the new acquisition and decided on further plans for the young football player.
In the first season, he spent 50 matches for the team. In the Portuguese championship, it was not possible to score, but João scored two goals in the national cup. In the same season, he became the champion of the Europa League as part of his new team.
The 2013 season was remembered by the fans as a spectacular goal, which João sent to the net of the gate of “Malaga” in the 1/8 finals of the Europa League.
The wedding with Ana Sofia Gomez took place in 2008, and already in 2009 Lara, the eldest daughter of João Moutinho, was born. Fans were able to see the photos of the young happy family on Instagram.
The path to the championship
Although the contract with Porto was signed until 2015, in 2013 Joao and his teammate Rodriguez moved to Monaco, where the player remains until this time. The amount that Porto received for the players was 70 million euros.
João Moutinho was invited to join the Portuguese national team since August 2005. In the debut match for the national team, the footballer entered the field against Egypt - he was then only 18 years old. Only three years later, the first goal for the national team was scored against the Georgian team.
The triumph of his football career for João was 2016, when the Portuguese national team won the European Championship. The unconvincing game of the Portuguese national team throughout the final stage of the tournament made many skeptics doubt their success. A series of draws, a victory in extra time or on the basis of a penalty - should such a game be demonstrated by the best European team?
A convincing victory in the semifinals over the Wales team was the first step on the path to the league title. In the final, the nerves were strained to the limit, because they had to play against the tournament hosts - the French team. The thousands of support of the French fans, their confidence in their team did not prevent the Portuguese from performing a small miracle.
Playing without his injured captain, Eder scored the only goal in France in extra time. João Moutinho and his teammates forever wrote down their names in the history of European football as the best team of the Old World in 2016.