Paulo Bento: life and career of footballer and coach

Paulo Jorge Bento - known in the pastthe Portuguese footballer, and now - the head coach of the Greek club Olympiakos. The player spent most of his career in his native Portugal, but spent four years abroad - in neighboring Spain.

Carier start

Paulo Bento started playing in the youth teamone of the three "whales" of Portuguese football - the Lisbon Benfica. In 19 years it has grown to the level of translation in the first team, but no match for the young midfielder, "eagles" and not spent.

In order to receive regular gamingpractice, the football player moved to "Estrela da Amadora". In his first season, Paulo Bento did not always go on the field in the first team, but made his significant contribution to the first in the history of the club trophy - in 1990, "tricolor" won the Cup of Portugal. In the next championship, the midfielder has proven himself already as a player of the main structure and leader of the center of the field, and at the end of the season he was sold to Vitoria.

Return to Benfica

As part of the "conquistadors," the football player spent threesuccessful season and began to regularly call in the Portuguese national team. Note that to do this for a player who does not play for "Porto", "Sporting", "Benfica" or not performing in European top clubs, it was extremely difficult, and in the history of the national team of such players were units. Nevertheless, one of them was just Paulo Bento. The Portuguese footballer made his debut in the national team in 1992 and defended the colors of the team until the end of the 2002 World Cup.

High quality football, which demonstratedmidfielder in the early nineties of the last century, made again draw the attention of the capital's "Benfica". This time, the player no longer began to keep on the bench spare and for two seasons he spent for "eagles" fifty fights and won the team with the Portuguese Cup.

Foreign stage and completion of career

At the age of 27, Paulo Bento was inbeautiful form and was in sight of several European football leaders, but the football player, surprisingly, chose to continue his career in the modest Spanish "Oviedo". In the "blue" Bento was elected captain and for four seasons played for the club 136 matches. Bento did not manage to win any trophy with an outsider of Spanish football, and in 2000 the midfielder decided to return to finish playing at home.

Lisbon "Sporting" became the fifth and the lastclub in the career of Paulo Bento. Nevertheless, it was in the "lions" that the middle-aged midfielder managed to win most of his trophies. With "Sporting" Bentu, at last, won gold medals of the championship and wrote down on his account the next Cup of Portugal. In 2004, the midfielder completed his playing career.

Coaching

Since 2005, the Portuguese specialist has moved tocoaching. He decided to stay in the structure of Sporting, in which he led the youth team first, and then the main team. Bentu built almost a new team, and under his leadership, such future top players as Luis Nani, Miguel Veloso, Joao Moutinho and others opened up. With "Sporting" coach twice won the national cup, and then in 2010 led the national team of Portugal.

Another period of his coaching career, Bento,for sure, would prefer not to remember. After working for two months in Cruzeiro, the Portuguese was dismissed from his post due to unsatisfactory results. The Brazilian grandee at that time occupied the penultimate place in the standings.

In the summer of 2016 in the Greek press seriouslyTalk about the candidacy of Paulo Bento. "Olympiakos" (Piraeus), formalized the day before the next championship in Greece, offered the Portuguese a two-year contract. In 2017, he was dismissed from his post as coach after a series of defeats in the championship.