Name Rui Jordao Date joined 1977 | Years Team Height 1.79 m 1970–1971 Benfica Role Footballer | |
Full name Rui Manuel Trindade Jordao Date of birth (1952-08-09) 9 August 1952 (age 63) | ||
Rui jord o sporting cp
Rui Manuel Trindade Jordão ([ˈʁuj ʒuɾˈðɐ̃w̃]; born 9 August 1952) is a retired Portuguese footballer.
Contents
One of the most prolific strikers in the history of Portugal's football, his career was mainly associated with two of the biggest clubs in the country, Benfica and Sporting, winning the Silver Ball award twice, once with each club.
Jordão represented the Portugal national team for 16 years, appearing with it at Euro 1984.
Rui Jordão
Club career
Born in Benguela, Portuguese Angola, Jordão moved in his teens to Portugal's S.L. Benfica, making his professional debuts in 1971–72. He played 17 games and scored six goals in his debut campaign, appearingly slightly less in his second (but still contributing with five successful strikes) as Benfica won back-to-back top division titles, only losing one match in the course of the two seasons combined.
After improving his displays at Benfica, Jordão signed with Spanish side Real Zaragoza in the 1976 summer, netting regularly but being relegated from La Liga, after which he returned to his country of adoption, signing with Sporting Clube de Portugal.
Jordão enjoyed his best years with the Lions, only scoring once in single digits in his first seven seasons, which included an astonishing 57 goals combined in the seasons where the team won the league (1980, 1982). At the age of 35 he moved to Vitória de Setúbal, reuniting with former Sporting teammate Manuel Fernandes, another prolific veteran goalscorer; he closed out his career two years later, one after Fernandes, having netted more than 200 goals – 214 exactly – in Portugal's league alone.
International career
In early 1972, Jordão won the first of his 43 caps for Portugal, against Cyprus for the 1974 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Also in that year he was picked for the squad that lost the Brazilian Independence Cup, 0–1 against hosts Brazil.
On 13 November 1983 Jordão scored the decisive goal against the Soviet Union, as the national side won 1–0 in Lisbon and qualified for UEFA Euro 1984. In the final stages Portugal managed to reach the semi-finals, where the player netted twice against hosts France in Marseille on 23 June 1984: Portugal led 2–1 with only six minutes to go in extra-time, after individual efforts and assists by Fernando Chalana, but eventually lost 2–3.
Jordão played his last international in 1989, at nearly 37, precisely in the year of his club retirement.