João Paulo de Castro Silva Bessa (born

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, 25 April 1947) is a Portuguese architect, journalist and a former rugby union player and coach. He also played football and tennis.

Career

Bessa begun his Architecture studies at the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes do Porto (ESBAP) and finished it at the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes de Lisboa (ESBAL) in 1973. He first played at CDUP (1965/66-1967/68) but moved then to CDUL (1968/69-1980/81) in Lisbon. He had 5 caps 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 ...

, from 1969 to 1974. After ending his playing career, he became a coach. He was the National Team coach from 1983 to 1986 and from 1994 to 1999. He almost achieved the qualification for the

1999 Rugby World Cup The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was principally hosted by Wales, and was won by Australia. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's professi ...

finals, but was eliminated by

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

at the repechage. João Paulo Bessa also has been a sports journalist for many Portuguese newspapers.

External links

João Paulo Bessa International StatisticsJoão Paulo Bessa Rugby Blog
1947 births Living people Portuguese rugby union players Portuguese rugby union coaches Portuguese architects Portuguese journalists Portuguese male journalists Sportspeople from Porto {{Portugal-rugbyunion-bio-stub