João Pedro Morais (6 March 1935 – 27 April 2010) 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 ...

. He started playing as a winger and later became a full-back.

Club career

Born in

Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera, Estoril Coast. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Port ...

, Morais 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 1958, arriving from

S.C.U. Torreense Sport Clube União Torreense is a Portuguese sports club, best known for its association football section, founded in Torres Vedras in 1917, as Sport União Torreense. History It participated six times in the Portuguese Liga (last in 1991–9 ...

where he had made his

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 ...

debut. He spent the following 11 seasons with the

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 ...

club, appearing in 256 matches in all competitions – including

friendlies An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the playe ...

– and scoring 68 goals. Morais was essential as Sporting won the 1964 edition of the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

: in the final's replay (3–3 in the first match), he scored from a direct

corner kick A corner kick, commonly known as a corner, is the method of restarting play in a game of association football when the ball goes out of play over the goal line, without a goal being scored and having last been touched by a member of the defe ...

in a 1–0 win against

MTK Budapest FC Magyar Testgyakorlók Köre Budapest Futball Club or shortly MTK is a professional Association football, football club based in Józsefváros, Budapest, Hungary. The club currently plays in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I. The club's colours are blue ...

. Morais left the ''Lions'' in June 1969, having won four titles. He retired at the age of 38, after three years in amateur football with Rio Ave F.C. and F.C. Paços de Ferreira.

International career

Morais earned nine

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

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 ...

in one year. His debut was on 18 June 1966 in a 1–0 friendly victory over

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, in Glasgow. Morais was selected for the country's

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 ...

squad, appearing in three games in a third-place finish. In the last group-stage fixture against

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, he committed one of the most infamous

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

fouls on Brazilian legend

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé (), was a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Widely reg ...

; however, he was allowed to stay on the field by English referee George McCabe.

Later life and death

Morais settled in

Vila do Conde Vila do Conde (, ; "the Count's Town") is a municipality in the Norte Region, Portugal, Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 79,533, in an area of 149.03 km2. The urbanized area of Vila do Conde, which includes the parishes of ...

, the city of his penultimate club, after retiring, going on to work as a

city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

employee. He died on 27 April 2010 at 75 after a long battle with illness.

Honours

Sporting CP *

: 1961–62, 1965–66 *

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 ...

: 1962–63 *

: 1963–64 Portugal *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

third place:

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 ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morais, Joao 1935 births 2010 deaths 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Cascais Men's association football defenders Men's association football wingers Men's association football utility players Primeira Liga players Caldas S.C. players S.C.U. Torreense players Sporting CP footballers Rio Ave F.C. players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Portugal men's international footballers 1966 FIFA World Cup players