Hugo Almeida

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Hugo Almeida
Personal information
Full name	Hugo Miguel Pereira de Almeida
Date of birth	May 23, 1984 (1984-05-23) (age 24)
Place of birth	Figueira da Foz, Portugal
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position	Centre forward
Club information
Current club	SV Werder Bremen
Number	23
Youth clubs
?–? 2000–2002	Naval 1º de Maio FC Porto
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2002–2003 2003 2004 2004 2005 2005–2006 2006–	→UD Leiria (loan) FC Porto →UD Leiria (loan) FC Porto →Boavista FC (loan) FC Porto Werder Bremen	13 0(3) 03 0(0) 15 0(2) 03 0(0) 14 0(3) 27 0(4) 50 (16)
National team2
2003–2006 2004–	Portugal U-21/Olympics Portugal	0 9 0(2)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 10 May 2008. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 31 May 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Hugo Miguel Pereira de Almeida (born May 23, 1984 in Figueira da Foz) is a Portuguese football centre forward who currently plays for Werder Bremen in the German Bundesliga, as a powerful and pacy forward.

[edit] Football career

Almeida started playing football for hometown club Naval 1º de Maio, before being spotted by FC Porto. Unable to settle at first, he had loan spells with União Leiria and Boavista, returning in 2005-06 to be an important part on a side that was crowned national champions.

Almeida served another loan stint in 2006-07, with an impressive debut season at Werder Bremen, tottaling 10 goals in 41 appearances (all competitions). After seeing his chances at Porto definitely cut down with the arrival of strikers Edgar and Ernesto Farías in August 2007, he decided to accept Bremen's offer for a permanent switch, penning a 4-year deal worth 4 million €. With the departure of Miroslav Klose, who signed for FC Bayern, Almeida's chances of first-team action improved dramatically, and he started 2007-08 in scoring fashion, netting 7 times in his first 12 league games. He would finish the season at 11, only surpassed in the team by Diego and Markus Rosenberg (13 each).

[edit] International career

He played at every level in international competitions, from the Under-15 to the main Portuguese national team. He made his debut for the national team in a friendly match against England on 18 February 2004, in a 1-1 tie.

He was part of the Portuguese team that won the 2003 Toulon tournament, also appearing at the 2004 and 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship finals.

Almeida was called for Portugal's final three Euro 2008 qualification matches. He started against Azerbaijan and scored his first international goal. He also scored in the follow-up, a 1:0 win over Armenia. These goals proved vital, as Portugal clinched a tournament spot.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• uefa.com bio
• Career statistics at fussballdaten.de (German)

v • d • e Portugal squad - UEFA Euro 2008 1 Ricardo • 2 P. Ferreira • 3 B. Alves • 4 Bosingwa • 5 F. Meira • 6 R. Meireles • 7 Ronaldo • 8 Petit • 9 H. Almeida • 10 Moutinho • 11 Simão • 12 Nuno • 13 Miguel • 14 J. Ribeiro • 15 Pepe • 16 R. Carvalho • 17 Quaresma • 18 Veloso • 19 Nani • 20 Deco • 21 Nuno Gomes • 22 Rui Patrício • 23 H. Postiga • Coach: Scolari