Playing position 1962–1971 Academica | Years Team Name Rui Rodrigues | |
Full name Rui de Gouveia Pinto Rodrigues Date of birth (1943-05-17) 17 May 1943 (age 72) Place of birth Lourenco Marques, Portuguese Mozambique | ||
Rui de Gouveia Pinto Rodrigues (born 17 May 1943) is a Portuguese retired football player and manager. He played as a centre back.
Contents
Over the course of 17 seasons, Rodrigues amassed Portuguese top division totals of 338 games and 21 goals, representing Academica de Coimbra (two spells), S.L. Benfica and Vitoria de Guimaraes.
Club career
Born in Lourenco Marques, Portuguese Mozambique, Rodrigues started at Grupo Desportivo 1º de Maio, after an unsuccessful try-out at Ferroviario de Lourenco Marques. 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 Academica de Coimbra. First with Jose Maria Pedroto and then with Mario 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.
In 1971, after years of refusing offers from larger clubs, he accepted a move to Benfica. 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. 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.
He then joined Vitoria de Guimaraes 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. Rodrigues returned to Academica 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. In the following four years, he managed several teams, notably Leca and Beira-Mar (twice), returning to Benfica in 1995 on invitation of Artur Jorge to coach the under-12.
International career
Rodrigues gained 12 caps for Portugal, nine as an Academica player. He made his debut on 26 November 1967 against Bulgaria, in a 0–1 loss in Sofia for the UEFA Euro 1968 qualifiers.
Rodrigues' last appearance was on 16 October 1976 against Poland, in a 0–2 home defeat for the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign.