Américo Ferreira Lopes (born 6 March 1933), known simply as Américo, is a Portuguese former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Club career

Born in

Santa Maria de Lamas Santa Maria de Lamas (Portuguese meaning ''Saint Mary of Lamas'') is a Portuguese civil parish located in the municipality of Santa Maria da Feira, in the district of Aveiro, in the Entre Douro e Vouga Subregion. It is located between the Douro an ...

Aveiro District Aveiro District ( pt, Distrito de Aveiro, or ) is located in the central coastal region of Portugal. The capital of the district is the city of Aveiro, which also serves as the seat of Aveiro Municipality. Aveiro District is bordered by the Po ...

, Américo spent the vast majority of his professional career with

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

, competing 13 seasons in the

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

and appearing in 250 official matches. With his only club, he won the 1959 national championship and the 1968

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...

. From 1954 to 1958, Américo was loaned to neighbouring

Boavista FC Boavista Futebol Clube, commonly known as Boavista (), is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Porto. Founded on 1 August 1903 by British entrepreneurs and Portuguese textile workers (thus the "FC" being appended – the British way as oppos ...

, playing his last three years in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. He retired in June 1969, aged 36.

International career

Américo made his debut for the Portugal national team on 29 April 1964, in a 3–2 friendly away win over

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. He was selected by manager

Otto Glória Otto Martins Glória (9 January 1917 – 4 September 1986) was a Brazilian football coach. Career Glória was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but had his greatest successes with Benfica in Portugal, guiding the club to nine national trophies. ...

for his

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the ...

squad, but remained an unused bench player for the eventual third-placed side. Américo earned the last of his 15

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

on 11 December 1968, in a 4–2 loss in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

for the 1970 World Cup qualifiers.

Honours

Porto *

: 1958–59 *

: 1967–68

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Americo Lopes 1933 births Living people Sportspeople from Santa Maria da Feira Portuguese footballers Association football goalkeepers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players FC Porto players Boavista F.C. players Portugal international footballers 1966 FIFA World Cup players