Miguel Veloso

Miguel Luis Pinto Veloso (Portuguese pronunciation: [miˈɣɛl ˈlwiʃ ˈpitu vɨˈlozu]; born 11 May 1986) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for and captains Italian club Hellas Verona. Mainly a defensive midfielder, he can also operate as an attacking left back.

He started his career with Sporting, for which he appeared in 165 games all competitions comprised, and also spent two years with Genoa before joining Dynamo Kyiv in 2012. After winning four domestic honours in Ukraine, he returned to Genoa in 2016.

A full international since 2007, Veloso earned 56 caps for Portugal, appearing at two World Cups and as many European Championships.

Club Career

Sporting CP

Born in Coimbra, Veloso started his football career at S.L. Benfica, but was rejected for being slightly overweight at the time, entering Lisbon neighbours Sporting CP's youth system at the age of 14. There, he was promoted to the first team for the 2004–05 pre-season, which took place mainly in England; he started out as a central defender.

In order to receive more playing time, Veloso was loaned to C.D. Olivais e Moscavide in the third division, and he helped them promote to the Segunda Liga with a career-best seven goals. As a result, he was recalled by the Lions – though it appeared difficult for him to grab a place in the starting team, because of the presence of players with much more experience such as Anderson Polga, Tonel, Marco Caneira or Custodio – and ended up playing 23 Primeira Liga matches during the campaign as his team finished second. He was equally impressive in his debut in the UEFA Champions League, a 1–0 home win against Inter Milan where he stopped Patrick Vieira and Luis Figo from playing effectively, earning Player of the match accolades in the process.

In 2007–08, Veloso was ever-present in Sporting's central midfield alongside fellow youth graduate Joao Moutinho. The club again lost the league to FC Porto, and the same befell in the following

This page also has a version in other languages :  Мигел Велозу (russian)