Paulinho Santos

Paulinho Santos

Personal information
Full name	João Paulo Maio dos Santos
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s)	Defensive midfielder
Team information
Current team	Retired
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of December 31, 2005

João Paulo Maio dos Santos (born November 21, 1970 in Vila do Conde), best known as Paulinho Santos, is a retired Portuguese footballer who played as a defensive midfielder.

Club career

Santos started playing with hometown Rio Ave FC, moving in 1992 to FC Porto, helping the latter (often in an instrumental role) to seven league titles and five domestic cups. In Porto, he and four others became the only players in the history of Portuguese football to win five consecutive league titles (1994-1999). When Porto won the 2003 UEFA Cup, Santos was already second-fiddle, and retired at the end of that season.

A player of aggressive approach, he often scuffled with Sport Lisboa e Benfica's João Vieira Pinto during his career: As a symbolic gesture, however, they exchanged shirts before Santos' last match, against Sporting CP (where Pinto was then playing), at Estádio das Antas, in June 2003.

International career

For Portugal, Santos received 30 international caps, scoring two goals (including a solo effort in a 1–1 away draw against Austria, on October 11, 1995). His first game was at 19 January 1994, in a 2–2 draw with Spain, at Vigo, in a friendly match, and his last came on February 10, 1999, in a 1–0 win over Holland, at Rotterdam, in another friendly.

Santos participated at Euro 1996, where he played as left back, and missed Euro 2000, due to injury.

Honours

• Portuguese League: 1992–93, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2002–03
• Portuguese Cup: 1993–94, 1997–98, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03
• Portuguese SuperCup: 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001
• UEFA Cup: 2002–03

External links

• Stats and profile at Zerozero.pt