Sebastião Lucas da Fonseca (26 July 1927 – 27 January 2000), known as Matateu (), was a Portuguese

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, rugb ...

who played as a striker. His professional career, which spanned more than 20 years, was closely associated to

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 Reste ...

. He won the '' Bola de Prata'' twice during his spell with the club, and scored 219 goals in 291

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, ...

games, being dubbed the '' World's Eighth Wonder''. Matateu's was Belenenses most-capped ever player for the Portugal national team.

Club career

Born in

Lourenço Marques Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088 ...

Portuguese Mozambique Portuguese Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique) or Portuguese East Africa (''África Oriental Portuguesa'') were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese colony. Portuguese Mozambique originally ...

, Matateu started his career playing for local teams João Albasini, 1º de Maio and Manjacaze. He signed with C.F. Os Belenenses in

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 th ...

in 1951, scoring

17 goals in 26 games in his first season as 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. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...

side finished in fourth position and adding 29 in the same number of matches in the following campaign – third place.26 de Julho de 1927 – Nasce Matateu (26 July 1927 – Matateu is born)
CF Os Belenenses, 25 July 2014 (in Portuguese) From 1953 to 1960, Matateu continued scoring in double digits (a minimum of 14 goals), netting a career-best 32 in 1954–55 for his team's final runner-up position (and his second

Silver Ball Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical cond ...

award). In 1960, he helped his main club win the

Portuguese Cup Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

against

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

(2–1); he left in the summer of 1964 at the age of 37, after only appearing in a combined four games in his last two seasons due to a serious leg injury from which he never fully recovered. Matateu then joined neighbouring

Atlético Clube de Portugal Atlético Clube de Portugal is a Portuguese club, located in the city of Lisbon, more precisely in the parish of Alcântara. It was founded on 18 September 1942 due to the merger of two clubs of Alcântara (Carcavelinhos Football Club) and Santo ...

of 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 ...

, helping to promotion in his second year. In the 1966–67 season – his final in the Portuguese top flight – the 39-year-old contributed with nine goals in 21 appearances, but the team suffered relegation after ranking second bottom (13th position); in the following three years, he played with Clube Desportivo de Gouveia in the second tier and amateur football with

Amora F.C. Amora Futebol Clube, commonly known as simply as Amora, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Amora, Setúbal. The club was founded on the 1 May 1921 and its founders were Mário de Carvalho, Guilherme Pestana, João Baptista, Julião Ga ...

and

G.D. Chaves Grupo Desportivo de Chaves, commonly known as Chaves (), is a Portuguese football club from Chaves currently playing in the Primeira Liga. They were founded in 1949 and currently play at Estádio Municipal de Chaves. Their home kit is red-and-bl ...

. Matateu retired from professional football well past his 40s, after spending several years in Canada, where he played in the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

with Toronto First Portuguese. In 1971 he headed westward to

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

, and represented Latino in the Vancouver Island Soccer League; he played a pivotal role in the creation of Sagres Victoria.

International career

Matateu earned 27

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

, and scored 13 goals. After making his debut on 23 November 1952 in a friendly with

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

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 metropo ...

, his last appearance was against

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

on 22 May 1960 for the

1960 European Nations' Cup The 1960 European Nations' Cup was the first edition of the UEFA European Championship, held every four years and organised by UEFA. The first tournament was held in France. It was won by the Soviet Union, who beat Yugoslavia 2–1 in Paris afte ...

(1–5 away loss, he netted in the first leg, a 2–1 win), aged 32. Matateu never played internationally with his compatriot

Eusébio Eusébio da Silva Ferreira (; 25 January 1942 – 5 January 2014), nicknamed the "Black Panther", the "Black Pearl" or "O Rei" ("The King"), was a Portuguese footballer who played as a striker. He is considered one of the greatest players of ...

although he had been called for the final

1962 FIFA World Cup The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the seventh edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place ...

qualifiers (where the latter made his debut), being left out of the squads for the matches against

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

Personal life / Death

Matateu's younger brother,

Vicente Vicente is an Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese name. Like its French variant, Vincent, it is derived from the Latin name ''Vincentius'' meaning "conquering" (from Latin ''vincere'', "to conquer"). Vicente may refer to: Location *São Vicente, Ca ...

, was also a footballer. A defender, he played 13 years with Belenenses (sharing teams with his sibling during ten), and also represented the Portugal national team. He died on 27 January 2000 at the age of 72, in the

Victoria General Hospital Victoria General Hospital (VGH) is an acute care facility located in View Royal, British Columbia, Canada, a western suburb of Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

, after a long battle with illness.Lenda do futebol português Matateu tenta vencer a morte (Portuguese football legend Matateu tries to beat death)
Record, 7 December 1999 (in Portuguese)

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Matateu 1927 births 2000 deaths Mozambican emigrants to Portugal Footballers from Maputo Mozambican men's footballers Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football forwards Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players C.F. Os Belenenses players Atlético Clube de Portugal players Amora F.C. players G.D. Chaves players Toronto First Portuguese players Canadian National Soccer League players Portugal men's international footballers Mozambican expatriate men's footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Canada