Rui Carlos Jorge Pataca (born 8 May 1973) is a Portuguese retired football who played as a
striker
Striker or The Strikers may refer to:
People
*A participant in a strike action
*A participant in a hunger strike
*Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant
*Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America
People wi ...
, and a
manager
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
.
Playing career
Born in
Luanda
Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...
, Portuguese Angola, Pataca only started playing professional football at the age of 22, with
A.D. Ovarense
Associação Desportiva Ovarense commonly known as simply as Ovarense is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Ovar, Aveiro. The club was founded on 19 December 1921. It currently plays at the Estádio Marques da Silva which they have playe ...
S.C. Covilhã
Sporting Clube da Covilhã, commonly known as just Sporting da Covilhã, is Portuguese association football, football club from the city of Covilhã that plays in the second-tier Liga Portugal 2. The club was founded in 1923. Their nickname is the ...
in both that and the third levels.
After an impressive season with
F.C. Felgueiras
Futebol Clube de Felgueiras was a Portuguese football club from Felgueiras. The club was founded on 16 August 1936 and ended in 2005 due to financial problems. The club played at the Estádio Dr. Machado de Matos which was their home since the c ...
in division two (18 goals), he signed for
C.F. Belenenses
Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its association football, football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000- ...
in the
top flight
Top Flight (April 15, 1929 – 1949) was an American U.S. Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse. She was the leading American filly of her generation at two and three years of age.
Background
Bred in Kentucky by the very prominent horseman Harry ...
, scoring six times during half a
season
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...
, his only with the club, as he finished the campaign with Montpellier HSC in the French
Ligue 1
Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...
, on loan, netting a further five goals in an eventual relegation, as 18th and last.
In the 2000 summer Pataca joined the
Hérault
Hérault (; oc, Erau, ) is a department of the region of Occitania, Southern France. Named after the Hérault River, its prefecture is Montpellier. It had a population of 1,175,623 in 2019.immediate promotion back, and being irregularly used in the following top division seasons. He subsequently stayed in the country with
US Créteil-Lusitanos
Union Sportive Créteil-Lusitanos (commonly referred to as US Créteil, USC, or simply Créteil) is a French football club based in Créteil, a southeastern suburb of Paris. The club was founded in 1936 and currently play in the Championnat Nati ...
, playing three seasons in
Ligue 2
Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...
and two in the
Championnat National
The Championnat de France National ( en, French National Championship), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, serves as the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, t ...
; after only 14 games in his last two years combined, the 36-year-old retired from football.
Manager career
After retiring, Pataca served as an assistant coach for his former club Créteil, under both Laurent Fournier and
Hubert Velud
Hubert Velud (born 8 June 1959) is a French former Association football player and most recently manager of the Sudan national team, following his departure from JS Kabylie mid season 2019–20.
Playing career
Velud was born in Villefranche-sur ...
. After two seasons, in May 2011, he was named manager of third level side
Rodez AF
Rodez Aveyron Football (; commonly referred to as le Raf or simply Rodez) is a French association football club based in Rodez. The club was founded in 1929 and currently plays in Ligue 2, the second level of French football. The club plays its ...