João Pedro Morais (6 March 1935 – 27 April 2010) was a Portuguese footballer. He started playing as a winger and later became a full-back.

Club career

Born in

Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Portugal, tourist de ...

, Morais joined Sporting CP in 1958, arriving from

S.C.U. Torreense Sport Clube União Torreense is a Portuguese sports club, best known for its association football section, founded in Torres Vedras in 1917, as Sport União Torreense. History It participated six times in the Portuguese Liga (last in 1991–92 ...

where he had made his

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, ...

debut. He spent the following 11 seasons with the

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

club, appearing in 256 matches all competitions comprised – including

friendlies An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

– and scoring 68 goals. Morais was essential as Sporting won the 1964 edition of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: in the final's replay (3–3 in the first match), he scored from a direct corner kick in a 1–0 win against MTK Budapest FC. Morais left the ''Lions'' in June 1969, having won four major titles. He retired at the age of 38, after three years in amateur football with

Rio Ave F.C. Rio Ave Futebol Clube, commonly known as Rio Ave (), is a Portuguese professional football club based in Vila do Conde, that competes in the Primeira Liga. The club is named after the Ave River, which flows through the town and into the Atlanti ...

and F.C. Paços de Ferreira.

International career

Morais earned nine caps for Portugal, over one year. His debut was on 18 June 1966 in a 1–0 friendly victory over Scotland, in Glasgow. Morais was selected for the country's

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, appearing in all three group stage games in an eventual third-place finish. In the match against Brazil, he committed one of the most infamous World Cup fouls on Brazilian legend

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA, ...

; However, he was allowed to stay on the field by English referee George McCabe without being booked.

Later life and death

Morais settled in Vila do Conde – the city of his penultimate club – after retiring, going on to work as a

city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

employee. He died on 27 April 2010 at 75, after a long battle with illness.

Honours

Club

Sporting *

: 1961–62, 1965–66 * Taça de Portugal: 1962–63 * UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1963–64

International

Portugal * FIFA World Cup third place:

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morais, Joao 1935 births 2010 deaths Sportspeople from Cascais Portuguese footballers Association football defenders Association football wingers Association football utility players Primeira Liga players Caldas S.C. players S.C.U. Torreense players Sporting CP footballers Rio Ave F.C. players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Portugal international footballers 1966 FIFA World Cup players