Ricardo Felipe dos Santos Esteves (born 16 September 1979) is a retired 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 ...

. On the right side of the pitch, he could play as either a defender or

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He played in 117

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 ...

games over the course of seven seasons, representing Vitória de Setúbal, Alverca, Benfica,

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

, Nacional, Paços de Ferreira and Marítimo in the competition. He also competed professionally in four other countries, mainly Italy.

Club career

Esteves was 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 ...

. After arriving at S.L. Benfica at the age of 11 he moved constantly between the club's first and reserve teams, only appearing in ten games in the

, all in the same season. He was loaned once during his contract, and also had a brief spell with

farm team In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a Team sport, team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any s ...

F.C. Alverca. Released in January 2002, Esteves represented in quick succession S.C. Braga, C.D. Nacional and F.C. Paços de Ferreira. Afterwards, he began an abroad adventure, playing three years in Italy with

Reggina Calcio Associazione Sportiva Reggina 1914, commonly referred to as Reggina, is an Italian football club based in Reggio Calabria. They play their home matches at the 27,763 seater Stadio Oreste Granillo and are currently playing in the Serie D leagu ...

(two) and

Vicenza Calcio L.R. Vicenza S.p.A. (acronym for ''Lanerossi Vicenza''), better known as Vicenza or Lanerossi, is an Italian football club based in the city of Vicenza. It plays in Serie C, the third division of the Italian football league. Founded on 9 March ...

in both major levels. Esteves spent the 2007–08 campaign back in his country with C.S. Marítimo, after which he moved again, now to

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and Asteras Tripoli FC. In January 2010 he was sold to

FC Seoul FC Seoul () is a South Korean professional Association football, football club based in Seoul that competes in the K League 1, the top flight of Football in South Korea, South Korean football. The club is owned by GS Sports, a subsidiary of GS G ...

, scoring in his debut against Daejeon Citizen FC. In June, after four goals and as many assists, Esteves was released. Late in that month he returned to his country and former side Marítimo, which had qualified for the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

International career

All youth levels comprised, Esteves won 53

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 ...

(no goals). He participated with the under-20s in the

1999 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Nigeria between 3 and 24 April 1999. This was the 12th edition of the tournament. Qualification The following 24 teams qualified for the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship. :1.Teams tha ...

held in

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

; in the round of 16 against

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, as the team had no substitutes left and Sérgio Leite got injured, he played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for more than one hour, conceding no goals in regulation time in an eventual 4–5

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

loss (1–1 after 120 minutes).

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Esteves, Ricardo 1979 births Living people Footballers from Lisbon Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Segunda Divisão players Clube Oriental de Lisboa players S.L. Benfica B players Vitória F.C. players F.C. Alverca players S.L. Benfica footballers S.C. Braga B players S.C. Braga players C.D. Nacional players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players C.S. Marítimo players Serie A players Serie B players AS Reggina 1914 players LR Vicenza players Super League Greece players Asteras Tripolis F.C. players K League 1 players FC Seoul players Chinese Super League players Dalian Shide F.C. players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in South Korea Expatriate men's footballers in China Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Italy Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in China