Paulo Ferreira

Paulo Renato Rebocho Ferreira, OIH, commonly known as Paulo Ferreira (Portuguese pronunciation born 18 January 1979 in Cascais) is a Portuguese football player. Ferreira is predominantly a right-back, but has also played at left-back and in central defence for Chelsea, his current team.

Club career

Early career

An unspectacular but consistent performer, Ferreira was once described by José Mourinho as “a player who will never be man of the match but will always score 7/10 for his individual display.”

He started his career in the Portuguese Second Division for Estoril-Praia. He then moved to Vitória Setúbal at the start of the 2001/2002 season.

Porto

Due to his excellent performances in the Portuguese Super Liga, he moved to Porto in the summer of 2002, signed by then-coach José Mourinho. Ferreira was previously a right-side midfielder until he met Mourinho at Porto.

In the following season, he won the League and Cup double domestically but the capture of the UEFA Cup over Celtic in Seville was the highlight of an exceptional season. The next season brought another Portuguese Liga title but more importantly he played every minute of Porto's UEFA Champions League win.

Chelsea

After playing for Porto for two years he joined Chelsea for £13.2 million at the beginning of the Premiership 2004-2005 season. At Stamford Bridge, Ferreira was reunited with his former manager José Mourinho and former teammate Ricardo Carvalho, both of whom were also signed by Chelsea in the offseason.

Ferreira impressed greatly in his debut season, playing 29 Premier League matches before injury ruled him out for the remainder of the campaign. He continued his fine form into the following campaign, during which he scored his first Chelsea goal (and only so far) in the 3-1 victory over Colchester United in the FA Cup fourth round.

Despite becoming a regular on his manager's team sheet, Ferreira suffered from a lack of confidence in the 2006/07 season, which eventually saw him lose his place to first Khalid Boulahrouz and then to midfielder Geremi. The emergence of young French midfielder Lassana Diarra further prevented Ferreira from featuring in first-team affairs as Mourinho saw it fit to play the French international in the full-back position. However he did play the full 120 minutes of Chelsea's 1-0 FA Cup final win over Manchester United.

Ferreira was the second choice right back for Chelsea during the 2007/08 season behind Michael Essien and Juliano Belletti. When played Ferreira was his usual consistent self, putting in unspectacular, workman like performances.

Ferreira signed a new 5-year deal with Chelsea on February 18, 2008 keeping him at the club until 2013.

He agreed a squad number swap from 20 to 19 for the 2008-09 season following Deco's arrival. Reports on the transfer deadline day, suggested that Ferreira was on the verge of joining Chelsea's London rivals West Ham United either on a season long loan deal or a permanent deal, however, they turned out to be false. He is out of the rest of the 2008-09 season after picking up an injury.

International career

Ferreira was called up for the Portuguese Under-21 side and accumulated 27 caps.

He was called up to the national team for Portugal's Euro 2004 campaign and started their opening game against Greece, but a series of mistakes in the game saw him dropped for Miguel for the rest of the tournament. He did, however, come on in Portugal's defeat in the final following an injury to Miguel.

Paulo made two appearances for Portugal in the 2006 World Cup. In the semi-final against France, which Portugal lost 0-1, Paulo came on in the second half for the injured Miguel. Paulo then started the third place playoff against the host country Germany, which the Germans won 3-1.

Ferreira faces competition from José Bosingwa and Miguel for the Portugal right-back slot and is often played at left-back since the retirement of Nuno Valente.

Ferreira was named in the Portguese Squad for the Euro 2008 Championships. Portugal were knocked out in the quarter finals and Ferreira was a starter in all of their 4 matches, playing at left back.