José António Barreto Travassos (22 February 1926 – 12 February 2002) 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, rugby lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

, mostly 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,

with whom he won eight

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 ...

championships.

Club career

Born 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 ...

, Travassos joined

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,

in 1946 from G.D. CUF. During his spell with the club, he appeared in 321 games in all competitions and scored 128 goals, being part of an attacking line dubbed ''Cinco Violinos'' (Five

Violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

s) that also included Albano,

Jesus Correia António Jesus Correia, ComIH (3 April 1924 – 30 November 2003) was a Portuguese football and roller hockey (quad) player, competing as a forward in the former sport and amassing Primeira Liga totals of 159 games and 128 goals over the cours ...

Fernando Peyroteo Fernando Baptista de Seixas Peyroteo de Vasconcelos (10 March 1918 – 28 November 1978) was a Portuguese professional footballer who played as a striker. He spent his entire professional career with Sporting CP, scoring 544 goals in all compe ...

and Manuel Vasques and winning eight

championships and two

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

trophies. In the 1948–49 season, Travassos netted a career-best 16 goals to help the Lions to win the domestic league ahead of

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 " ...

. He retired in 1959 at the age of 33.

International career

Travassos won 35

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 Java ...

for the Portugal national team over 11 years, scoring six times. His debut came on 5 January 1947 in a 2–2 friendly draw against

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

in the Portuguese capital and, 21 days later and in another home exhibition game, netted a brace to help defeat

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

4–1. Travassos was one of the first Portuguese footballers to reach international recognition, playing in 1955 for a

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

side that defeated

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

4–1 in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

and being directly involved in two of the goals. For this achievement, he was dubbed "Zé da Europa" (Europe Joe).

Style of play

Travassos was known for his above-average passing and

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. As ...

, also having the ability to score himself. Throughout his career, he was plagued by hard

tackles Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position) A tackle is a playing position in American football. Historically, in the one-platoon system prevalent ...

, having three of his four menisci removed.

Post-retirement and death

After retiring, Travassos ran a

refrigerator A refrigerator, commonly shortened to fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermal insulation, thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to ...

business. He died in his hometown on 12 February 2002, aged 75.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Travassos, Jose 1926 births 2002 deaths 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Lisbon Men's association football forwards Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players G.D. Fabril players Sporting CP footballers Portugal men's international footballers