João de Matos Moura Lourenço (born 8 April 1942) is a Portuguese former

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, rugby lea ...

who played as a striker, most notably for

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

Club career

Born in Alcobaça,

Leiria District The District of Leiria ( ) is a district located between the Oeste e Vale do Tejo and Centro regions of Portugal, and divided between the traditional provinces of Beira Litoral and Estremadura. It borders on the north with district of Coimbra, ...

, Lourenço started playing football in 1960 with local G.C. Alcobaça. After one season, he signed for

Associação Académica de Coimbra The Associação Académica de Coimbra (AAC) is the students' union of the University of Coimbra (UC). Founded in Coimbra on November 3, 1887, it is the oldest students' union in Portugal. It is also the biggest Portuguese students' union belongin ...

. In the summer of 1964, Lourenço joined

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

club

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

. He remained in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

eight years, winning the

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 ...

and 1970 national championships. Lourenço retired in June 1972 aged only 30, having scored 145 goals in 219 competitive matches for the ''Lions'' including 93 in the league. In a rainy afternoon in October 1965, he netted four times in a 4–2 away win against

S.L. 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'', Benfica is one of the " ...

as Sporting went on to win the domestic championship; in European competition he added 18, only being surpassed many years later by

Liédson Liédson da Silva Muniz (born 17 December 1977), known simply as Liédson, is a former professional footballer who played as a striker. Nicknamed ''Levezinho'' ("Slender one") due to his light frame (63 kg),

International career

Lourenço was a member of the

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

squad that participated in the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 to 30 July 1966. England defeated West Germany 4–2 in the 1966 FI ...

in England, but did not make any appearance in the competition for the third-placed team, eventually being the only player called for the tournament that would never be

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the e ...

Personal life

Lourenço's career ended in 1972, when he still had a year left on his contract with Sporting. He retired from football and moved to

Portuguese Angola In southwestern Africa, Portuguese Angola was a historical Evolution of the Portuguese Empire, colony of the Portuguese Empire (1575–1951), the overseas province Portuguese West Africa of Estado Novo (Portugal), Estado Novo Portugal (1951–1 ...

because he did not want to fight in the

Portuguese Colonial War The Portuguese Colonial War (), also known in Portugal as the Overseas War () or in the Portuguese Empire, former colonies as the War of Liberation (), and also known as the Angolan War of Independence, Angolan, Guinea-Bissau War of Independence ...

, and as the African territory was under Portuguese rule, he was legally exempt from military service. Subsequently, Lourenço emigrated to Canada, where he worked in a flat block, a bureau de change and the cargo department of Sabena (a Belgian airline). He returned to Portugal in 1981, being employed at

Securitas In Roman mythology, Securitas was the goddess of security and stability, especially the security of the Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conqu ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lourenco, Joao 1942 births Living people People from Alcobaça, Portugal 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Leiria District Men's association football forwards Primeira Liga players G.C. Alcobaça players Académica de Coimbra (football) players Sporting CP footballers Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's B international footballers 1966 FIFA World Cup players