João António Ferreira Resende Alves (born 5 December 1952) is a Portuguese football manager and former player. A skilled

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, he was considered one of the best Portuguese players of his generation, and earned the nickname ''Luvas Pretas'' from the black gloves he used to wear while playing following in the style of his grandfather Carlos Alves. During his career he represented mainly, with equal individual and team success, Benfica and Boavista, also coaching the latter club on three separate occasions.

Playing career

Club

Born in

Albergaria-a-Velha Albergaria-a-Velha () is a town and a municipality in the Aveiro District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 25,252, in an area of 158.83 km². It had 19,687 eligible voters in 2006. History In 1117, D. Teresa, Countess of Portucale, an ...

, Aveiro District, Alves started playing at youth level for A.D. Sanjoanense, being recruited in 1969 by

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904 as ''Sport Lisboa'', Be ...

. His first professional team was

Varzim S.C. Varzim Sport Club () is a Portuguese football team based in Póvoa de Varzim, near Porto in the north of the country. The club was founded on 25 December 1915, and has played at the Estádio do Varzim Sport Club since it was founded. The club pl ...

in the 1972–73 season followed by C.D. Montijo, the latter being his Primeira Liga experience. Alves moved to his first major club, Boavista FC, for the 1974–75 campaign, where he first showed more of his talent, earning him a transfer to Spain's

UD Salamanca Unión Deportiva Salamanca, S.A.D. () was a historical Spanish football team based in Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 February 1923 and nicknamed ''Los Charros'', the club played in white shirts and blac ...

where he remained two more years. He then returned to Portugal and Benfica, only to move after one year to

Paris Saint-Germain FC Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As F ...

. Failing to impress in France, Alves immediately moved back to the

Estádio da Luz The Estádio da Luz (), officially named Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Lisbon, Portugal. It is used mostly for association football matches, hosting the home games of Portuguese club S.L. Benfica, it ...

, where he would play for the next three seasons. He then re-joined Boavista, ending his career during 1984–85 at the age of 32 to become the latter team's coach. Alves won two national championships for Benfica (1981 and 1983) and four Portuguese Cups (two for Boavista, in 1975 and 1976, and two with the former side, in 1981 and 1983). He also played for them in the 1982–83

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

, losing on aggregate to

R.S.C. Anderlecht ; french: Les Mauves et Blancs) , short name = R.S.C.A. , founded = , ground = Constant Vanden Stock Stadium , capacity = 22,500 , owntitle = Chairman , owner = Wouter Vandenhaute , manager = Brian Riemer , ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

International

Alves won 36

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 Ja ...

for

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

(11 for Boavista, eight for Salamanca and 17 for Benfica), scoring three goals. His debut took place on 13 November 1974 in a 0–3 friendly loss to Switzerland, and his final match was on 27 April 1983, in a 0–5 loss against the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

for the

UEFA Euro 1984 The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in France from 12 to 27 June 1984. It was the seventh UEFA European Championship, a competition held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. At the time, only eight countries ...

qualifiers.

Coaching career

Alves became a coach after finishing his player career, managing Boavista on three separate occasions, C.F. Estrela da Amadora (leading the

Amadora Amadora () is a municipality and urbanized city in the northwest of the Lisbon metropolitan area and 10 km from central Lisbon. The population in 2011 was 175,136, in an area of 23.78 km² (9.2 sq mi). It is the most densely populated mun ...

team to an historical 1990 Cup of Portugal triumph),

Vitória de Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...

C.F. Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Rest ...

, Salamanca, S.C. Campomaiorense, S.C. Farense, Académica de Coimbra and Leixões SC. In 1996–97, he was one of three managers as former side Salamanca returned to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

after a second-place finish. After three years out of coaching, he returned to Benfica in 2007, to be in charge of its under-18 team. Two years later he returned to senior football, signing with Switzerland's Servette FC and achieving promotion to the Super League in his second season. On 28 November 2011, following Swiss Cup elimination at the hands of

FC Biel-Bienne Fussballclub Biel-Bienne is a Swiss association football club based in Biel/Bienne. The currently play in the 2. Liga Interregional. Honours Swiss championship *Champions: 1946–47 *Runners-up: 1947–48, 1959–60 Swiss Cup *Runner ...

(0–3 away loss), Alves was relieved of his duties. However, following poor results achieved by his successor and the club's takeover by Hugh Quennec, he was reinstated as manager in April 2012: in the final five games of the campaign results improved, with the team achieving four wins and one draw – this included a 2–1 win over eventual champions

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, a ...

, which ended Servette's streak of 17 consecutive defeats against that opponent as well as ending their 26-match unbeaten run – and the side eventually qualified for the UEFA Europa League. On 9 October 2018, after six years of inactivity, Alves returned for another spell as Académica coach, with the club now in the LigaPro. He left at the end of the season, and came back to management on 9 January 2020 with

C.D. Cova da Piedade Clube Desportivo Cova da Piedade is a football club established in the parish of Cova da Piedade, municipality of Almada, Portugal. History Clube Desportivo Cova da Piedade was founded on 28 January 1947, resulting from the merge between União ...

, last-placed in the same league. They were relegated in May when the campaign was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, and he openly attacked the

Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional The Liga Portugal (Portugal League), also known by its acronym LPFP, is a governing body that manages professional football club competitions in Portugal. It was founded in 1978 as Liga Portuguesa dos Clubes de Futebol Profissional and works as an ...

for the decision.

Managerial statistics

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" , - !rowspan=2, Team !rowspan=2, From !rowspan=2, To !colspan=8, Record , - ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! , - , Boavista , August 1990 , November 1990 , - , Estrela Amadora , July 1988 , June 1990 , - , Boavista , August 1990 , November 1990 , - ,

Vitória Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ( ...

, January 1991 , May 1992 , - , Estrela Amadora , July 1993 , May 1994 , - , Belenenses , October 1994 , May 1996 , - ,

Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Herit ...

, July 1996 , September 1996 , - , Boavista , November 1996 , 12 January 1997 , - , Campomaiorense , October 1997 , 29 November 1998 , - , Farense , February 1999 , January 2000 , - , Académica , December 2000 , 3 December 2002 , - , Estrela Amadora , 6 March 2003 , 11 November 2003 , - ,

Leixões The Port of Leixões ( pt, Porto de Leixões, ) is one of Portugal's major seaports, located 4 km north of the mouth of the Douro River, in Matosinhos municipality, near the city of Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city i ...

, 5 November 2003 , 12 January 2004 , - ,

Servette Servette is a district of the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The district's name comes from the Latin word for forest, ''silva'', and means "little forest". Its name alludes to Servette's rural past, before Geneva grew beyond its walls and incorpora ...

, 7 October 2009 , 28 November 2011 , - , Servette , 25 April 2012 , 4 September 2012 , - ! colspan=3, Career totals

Honours

Player

Boavista *

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 sea ...

: 1974–75, 1975–76 Benfica * Primeira Liga: 1980–81, 1982–83 *

: 1980–81, 1982–83 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese football match played since 1979 between the winners of the Portuguese League (Primeira Liga) and Portuguese ...

: 1980

Manager

Estrela da Amadora *

: 1989–90 * Segunda Liga:

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

Individual

* Portuguese Footballer of the Year: 1975

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alves, Joao 1952 births Living people People from Albergaria-a-Velha Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players S.L. Benfica footballers Varzim S.C. players C.D. Montijo players Boavista F.C. players La Liga players UD Salamanca players Ligue 1 players Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players Portugal men's international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in France Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in France Portuguese football managers Primeira Liga managers Liga Portugal 2 managers Boavista F.C. managers C.F. Estrela da Amadora managers Vitória S.C. managers C.F. Os Belenenses managers S.C. Campomaiorense managers S.C. Farense managers Académica de Coimbra (football) managers Leixões S.C. managers Segunda División managers UD Salamanca managers Servette FC managers Portuguese expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Spain Expatriate football managers in Switzerland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Footballers from Aveiro District Portuguese association football commentators