Rui Rodrigues

Rui de Gouveia Pinto Rodrigues (born 17 May 1943) is a Portuguese retired football player and manager. He played as a centre back.

Rui Rodrigues
Personal information
Full name Rui de Gouveia Pinto Rodrigues
Date of birth (1943-05-17) 17 May 1943
Place of birth Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique
Position(s) Centre back
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1962–1971 Académica 210 (17)
1971–1974 Benfica 47 (1)
1974–1976 Vitória Guimarães 48 (2)
1976–1979 Académica 33 (1)
Total 338 (21)
National team
1967–1976 Portugal 12 (3)
Teams managed
1979–1980 Leça
1980–1981 Beira-Mar
1981–1982 União Coimbra
1982 Beira-Mar
1983 Oliveira Bairro
1985 1º de Maio
1995–1997 Benfica (youth)
2000 Camacha
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Over the course of 17 seasons, Rodrigues amassed Portuguese top division totals of 338 games and 21 goals, representing Académica de Coimbra (two spells), S.L. Benfica and Vitória de Guimarães.

Club career

Born in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique, Rodrigues started at Grupo Desportivo 1º de Maio, after an unsuccessful try-out at Ferroviário de Lourenço Marques.[1] In 1962, he travelled to Portugal for a training session with the under-18 national team. Only a few months later, at the start of 1962–63 season, he joined Académica de Coimbra.[1] First with José Maria Pedroto and then with Mário Wilson, Rodrigues spent 9 seasons in Coimbra, helping them reach a fourth place in 1964–65 and a club record second place in 1964–67, plus reaching two Portuguese Cup finals, in 1967 and 1969.[1]

In 1971, after years of refusing offers from larger clubs, he accepted a move to Benfica.[2][3] He made his debut on 12 September 1971, in a home win to Porto and played a total of 25 matches throughout the season, winning a league and cup double, and reached the semi-final of the European Cup.[4] During his spell at Benfica, he suffered minor injuries that hinder his progress in the team and with competition from Messias and others, the 31-year old chose to leave Benfica in 1974.[5][6][7]

He then joined Vitória de Guimarães for two seasons, playing all of the league games in 1974–75 and receiving the captain armband in the following year, which ended with another Portuguese Cup final lost.[1] Rodrigues returned to Académica in 1976, playing only 33 league appearances over three years, five of those in 1978–79 and with the team suffering relegation, the 36-year-old retired from football.[1] In the following four years, he managed several teams, notably Leça and Beira-Mar (twice), returning to Benfica in 1995 on invitation of Artur Jorge to coach the under-12, winning the Campeonato Nacional de Infantis.[3]

International career

Rodrigues gained 12 caps for Portugal, nine as an Académica player. He made his debut on 26 November 1967 against Bulgaria, in a 0–1 loss in Sofia for the UEFA Euro 1968 qualifiers.[8]

Rodrigues' last appearance was on 16 October 1976 against Poland, in a 0–2 home defeat for the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign.

Rui Rodrigues: International goals
GoalDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
112 May 1971Estádio das Antas, Porto, Portugal Denmark1–05–0Euro 1972 qualifying
213 October 1971Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland Scotland1–12–1Euro 1972 qualifying
319 November 1975Estádio José Alvalade (1956), Lisbon, Portugal England1–01–1Euro 1976 qualifying

Honours
Académica[1]
Benfica[3]
Vitória de Guimarães[1]

References

General

  • Tovar, Rui Miguel (2012). Almanaque do Benfica. Portugal: Lua de Papel. ISBN 978-989-23-2087-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Specific

  1. Alberto de Castro Abreu (3 February 2009). "Rui Rodrigues". Glórias do Passado (in Portuguese). Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  2. "Arsenal: Campeão de Inglaterra, teste benfiquista para a campanha internacional" [Champions Arsenal to test Benfica for international campaign]. Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese) (17447): 27. 18 July 1971. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  3. Malheiro, João (July 2006). Memorial Benfica 100 Glórias [Benfica Memorial, 100 glories] (in Portuguese) (Third ed.). QuidNovi. p. 126. ISBN 978-972-8998-26-4.
  4. Tovar 2012, p. 371.
  5. Tovar 2012, p. 377.
  6. Tovar 2012, p. 383.
  7. "Guimarães". Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese) (18523): 24. 29 July 1974. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  8. "Rui Rodrigues". eu-football.info. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
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