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• Ricardo Carvalho and Deco furious as move from Chelsea to Inter ...

  Football.co.uk - Found Jul. 1, 2009 Both Deco and Carvalho have made clear that they want to leave Stamford Bridge and are furious that the moves have stalled.

• Motta wants Deco at Inter

  ESPN Star - Found Jun. 29, 2009 Inter Milan midfielder Thiago Motta believes Chelsea star Deco would be an important signing for the Serie A winners. Deco has fallen out of favour... Motta wants Deco arrival - Sky Sports Motta Hopes For Deco Swoop - Orange UK Motta hopes for Deco swoop - Football.co.uk Explore All

• � Deco may exit Chelsea

  IAfrica.com - Found Jun. 29, 2009 Deco has moved a step closer to a Stamford Bridge departure after accusing Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich of treating the club like a 'toy'. Deco Lambasts Chelsea's owner, Abramovich - Nigeria Guardian Explore All

• Deco may exit Chelsea

  IAfrica.com - Found Jun. 28, 2009 Deco has moved a step closer to a Stamford Bridge departure after accusing Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich of treating the club like a 'toy'.

• Deco hits out at Abramovich over Scolari exit - England

  ESPNsoccernet - Found Jun. 27, 2009 Deco hits out at Abramovich over Scolari exit Chelsea's want-away midfielder Deco has accused Blues owner Roman Abramovich of treating the club like Blues ace eyes move - Clubcall Deco leaving Roman's toy set - The Sun Deco's Swipe At Abramovich - Orange UK Deco in Abramovich blast - Sky Sports Explore All

  ESPNsoccernet

• Chelsea's Deco repeats Inter desire

  TheScore.com - Found Jun. 26, 2009 London, England (Sports Network) - Chelsea's Portugal midfielder Deco has again confirmed that he would like to leave Stamford Bridge and join Jose National Sport: Burdisso plays down Chelsea link - Coventry Telegraph Inter Milan offer 10m for Chelsea duo Ricardo Carvalho and Deco - Football.co.uk Arnautovic retains Inter hope - Football.co.uk Explore All

  Football.co.uk

• Inter Milan chief flies in to discuss Carvalho Deco and Maicon deals ...

  Football.co.uk - Found Jun. 24, 2009 Inter Milan sporting director Marco Branca has arrived in London to finalise the signings of Ricardo Carvalho and Deco from Chelsea.

• Chelsea's Deco repeats Inter desire

  Sports Network - Found Jun. 23, 2009 'I had a rather difficult season at Chelsea. I had a serious injury and I could not play my best football,' Deco told the Corriere dello Sport. Deco wants Chelsea exit - Al Jazeera Deco says he wants to leave Chelsea - Toronto Star Online Deco unhappy at Chelsea, wants to leave - SuperSport Deco repeats Inter desire - Football.co.uk Explore All

  SuperSport

• FotoInsight Opens the Internet Deco Shop in Europe

  PR inside - Found Jun. 23, 2009 ... mount posters onto a 'Deco-block?, specially made to hang the laminated and framed posters straight onto a wall. The so called Deco-block was... Home Decoration Takes a new Dimension Online - Journalism.co.uk Explore All

  Journalism.co.uk

• FotoInsight opens the Internet Deco Shop for France and Ireland

  Cambridge Network - Found Jun. 22, 2009 ... mount posters onto a 'Deco-block?, specially made to hang the laminated and framed posters straight onto a wall. The so called Deco-block was...

Deco extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Deco

Personal information
Full name	Anderson Luís de Souza
Date of birth	27 August 1977 (1977-08-27) (age 31)
Place of birth	São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in)1
Playing position	Attacking midfielder
Club information
Current club	Chelsea
Number	20
Youth career
1995–1996	Nacional
Senior career1
Years	Club	Apps (Gls)2
1996–1997	Corinthians (SP)	002 0(0)
1997–1998	Alverca	032 (13)
1998–1999	Salgueiros	012 0(2)
1999–2004	Porto	154 (32)
2004–2008	FC Barcelona	113 (11)
2008–	Chelsea	024 0(3)
National team3
2003–	Portugal	064 0(5)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 08:18, 26 May 2009 (UTC). 2 Appearances (Goals) 3 National team caps and goals correct as of 10:52, 2 July 2009 (UTC).

Anderson Luís de Souza, OIH (born 27 August 1977 in São Bernardo do Campo), commonly known as Deco, is a Brazilian-born Portuguese professional footballer who currently plays for English club Chelsea and internationally for Portugal. Deco is one of the few players to have won the UEFA Champions League with two different clubs, with FC Porto in 2004 and FC Barcelona in 2006. He was named Man of the Match in the 2003-04 Champions League final. Deco is the first player to win the UEFA Best Midfielder Award with two different clubs, once each. He was awarded the FIFA World Club Cup Golden Ball and the Man of the Match award in the final despite losing to Internacional.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Early career 1.2 Porto 1.3 FC Barcelona 1.4 Chelsea 2 International career 2.1 2006 World Cup 2.2 Euro 2008 2.3 International goals 3 Career statistics 4 Honours 4.1 Individual 4.2 Porto 4.3 FC Barcelona 4.4 Chelsea FC 5 Personal life 6 Quotes 7 References 8 External links

Career

Early career

Deco started off his career at Nacional Atlético Clube in the city of São Paulo, where he was spotted and signed by Corinthians. Despite making a couple of appearances for the Brazilian giant, he was deemed too feeble for professional football and was shipped off to Corinthians' franchise Corinthians Alagoano, where he paid his way by moonlighting as an offshore wind farm technician.

Deco arrived in Portugal in 1997 at the age of 19 along with fellow Brazilian player Caju after being acquired by Lisbon side SL Benfica, along with the Corinthians Alagoano franchise.

Despite good showings in training, Benfica decided to loan Deco to the Portuguese Liga de Honra side Alverca where he played for a season. Deco performed well and was close to renewing his contract with Benfica and joining the main squad. However, the Lisbon club and the player's representative did not reach an agreement, as the then manager Graeme Souness did not believe that he would develop into a player worth keeping. Subsequently, Deco was traded to Portuguese Liga side Salgueiros in the 1998-99 season, playing 12 games and scoring two goals. His performances caught the eye of the FC Porto staff, and during the winter transfer window, he was sold to Porto.

Porto

Under the guidance of José Mourinho, Deco was given the role of leading an ambitious Porto team. A key figure in the 2002-03 season, he scored 10 goals in 30 games, but nevertheless received 17 yellow cards and one red card. Deco was one of the key players in Porto's UEFA Cup final 3-2 win over Celtic that year. In the 2003-04 season, Deco helped Porto recapture the national title and led the team to the 2004 UEFA Champions League Final in which Porto won 3-0 over AS Monaco, scoring the second goal of the match. He was the Champions League's top assist provider and also suffered the most fouls in the Champions League that season. That season, Deco won the UEFA Most Valuable Player, as well as the award for the best midfielder in the competition.

FC Barcelona

On 17 June 2004, Deco told a Portuguese radio station that he would almost certainly join English side Chelsea (then coached by Mourinho) following UEFA Euro 2004. He said that a transfer deal between Porto and Chelsea had been all but finalised, and that the only remaining steps were passing a physical examination and signing a formal contract with Chelsea.

However, on 26 June 2004, he told the Portuguese sports daily O Jogo that he would rather move to FC Barcelona than follow Mourinho to Chelsea. While Bayern Munich gave up on Deco after the Chelsea deal seemed to have been concluded, it was still uncertain whether the German side would make a new bid. The best offer at that time was a €21 million bid from Barça, but this figure was still €4 million short of the request by Porto's board. Portuguese newspapers then reported that Barça would try to offer Portuguese winger Ricardo Quaresma as part of the exchange in order to ease the deal.

Finally, a deal was achieved between Porto and Barcelona the day after the UEFA Euro 2004 final. Barça agreed on a €12 million fee, plus the complete rights of Quaresma to Porto. Deco signed a four year deal with the Catalan side on 6 July 2004.

In Barcelona, some suggested Deco would be completely eclipsed by Brazilian star Ronaldinho (a duo that according to Luiz Felipe Scolari "can make rain fall"). Indeed, many Barcelona fans met the transfer with raised eyebrows, as Deco was considered an attacking midfielder - a department which was already well covered. Instead, coach Frank Rijkaard used him in a pure central midfield position, where his tactical knowledge, defensive abilities, and enormous work rate surprised many. In December 2004, he came second in France Football's Ballon d'Or 2004 award, losing to Andriy Shevchenko and beating teammate Ronaldinho by six votes.

On 14 May 2005, Deco played in the draw against Levante, which gave Barcelona their 17th La Liga title. He also was named Barcelona's player of the season in the 05/06 season

Deco scored twice in the Spanish Supercup 2006-07, which Barça won.² Deco won the UEFA Best Midfielder Award yet again for his performance in Barça's Champions League winning season, enabling him to join the exclusive group of players that have won the same award more than once with different teams, having won the Champions League previously with Porto. Other members of this exclusive group include greats such as Clarence Seedorf (Ajax, Real Madrid, and Milan), Marcel Desailly (Marseille and Milan), Frank Rijkaard (Milan and Ajax), Didier Deschamps (Marseille and Juventus), Owen Hargreaves (Bayern Munich and Manchester United) and Edwin van der Sar (Ajax and Manchester United), which many commentators have decided must have been an incredible performance. He was also awarded the Golden Ball at the FIFA Club World Cup and the Man of the Match award, despite losing the final to Internacional.³

Chelsea

On 30 June 2008, Chelsea signed Deco from FC Barcelona on a three year contract for £8 million. ⁴ He was the first signing of new Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who was formerly the national coach of Portugal.

Deco scored on his Chelsea debut and his Premier League debut, with a 40-yard shot, in a 4-0 victory over Portsmouth. Deco followed up his performance by scoring in his second game for Chelsea, a curling free kick against Wigan Athletic. These performances led to him winning the Premier League Player of the Month award for August. Deco made his Champions League debut for Chelsea on September 16. Deco injured himself during a training session, but he returned from the thigh injury on 19 October and came on as a substitute against Middlesbrough. He was sent off in the 3-1 defeat by AS Roma on 4 November 2008. He then scored a bicycle kick against Bolton Wanderers on 6 December.

Deco eventually lost his place in the 2008-09 starting line up, due in part to some poor performances, but also to the sacking of Scolari. In a June interview, Deco stated: "I do not want to stay. I have not liked my experience at Chelsea." This was soon followed by Internazionale, managed by former Chelsea manager José Mourinho, declaring that they were attempting to sign Deco along with fellow countryman Ricardo Carvalho, who had also declared his desire to leave and like Deco desired to link up with Mourinho again. Both players were under Mourinho at FC Porto. ⁵

International career

Never called up to the Brazilian national team, Deco was eligible to play for Portugal, with Deco playing club football with FC Porto his years in Portugal made him eligible to play for the Portuguese. Deco has mentioned several times in the media as an option for the Portuguese national team. In 2002, having completed six years of Portuguese residence, he received Portuguese citizenship. After many months of public discussion which split Portuguese public opinion, and despite the opposition of a large number of Porto rivals' supporters, he was called up for his first international — coincidentally against Brazil. He scored the free kick that stunned Brazil, leading to a 2-1 win for Portugal. This was Portugal's first win over Brazil since the 1966 World Cup. Since that game, he has been a regular in the national team, in spite of initial criticism by players such as Luís Figo, who later recognised Deco's value. Despite the early criticism, Deco is today one of the highlights of the Portuguese national team. He had scored four goals in 55 caps for Portugal by June 2008.

2006 World Cup

In the 2006 World Cup, Deco scored the first goal in Portugal's second Group D match against Iran in the 63rd minute minute prior to Cristiano Ronaldo's 80th minute penalty. During the first knockout stage of the competition, Deco received two yellow cards in the game against Netherlands with the first given for a rash tackle on John Heitinga, suspending him from the quarterfinal win against England, as he already picked up a caution in the match with Iran. The win against England in the quarterfinal stage led to Portugal's defeat in the semifinal, which Deco was able to participate in.

Euro 2008

On 11 June, Deco scored the opening goal in Portugal's second match of Euro 2008, a Group A clash with the Czech Republic. The game ended 3-1 to Portugal, with Deco aiding his team in their passage to the quarter-finals where Portugal's campaign came to an end against Germany, the eventual runners-up of the tournament.

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	29 March 2003	Estádio das Antas, Porto, Portugal	Brazil	2-1	2-1	Friendly
2.	13 October 2004	Estádio José Alvalade, Lisboa, Portugal	Russia	4-0	7-1	2006 FIFA World Cup Qualifying
3.	17 June 2006	Commerzbank-Arena/FIFA World Cup Stadium Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany	Iran	1-0	2-0	2006 FIFA World Cup Group D Report
4.	11 June 2008	Stade de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland	Czech Republic	1-0	3-1	UEFA Euro 2008
5.	10 September 2008	Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal	Denmark	2-1	2-3	FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifying

Career statistics

Club	Season	League		Cup		League Cup		Europe		Other6		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Corinthians	1995-1996	2	0			–		–		–
	Total	2	0	?	?	–		–		–		?	?
Alverca	1996–97	32	13			–		–		–
	Total	32	13	?	?	–		–		–		?	?
Porto	1997–98	6	0	0	0	–		0	0	-		6	0
	Total	6	0	0	0	–		0	0	–		6	0
Salgueiros	1997–98	12	2	0	0	–		–		-		12	2
	Total	12	2	0	0	–		–		–		12	2
Porto	1998–99	6	0	0	0	–		0	0	-		6	0
	1999–00	23	1	0	0	–		0	0	-		23	1
	2000–01	31	6			–		10	6	-
	2001–02	30	13			–		12	2	-
	2002–03	30	10			–		5	0	-
	2003–04	28	2	2	0	–		12	2	1	0	43	4
	Total	148	32	?	?	–		39	8	1	0	?	?
FC Barcelona	2004-05	35	8	1	0	–		7	2	–		43	10
	2005-06	29	3	4	0	–		11	2	–		44	5
	2006-07	31	1	3	0	–		8	2	1	0	43	3
	2007-08	18	1	1	0	–		6	0	–		25	1
	Total	113	13	9	0	–		32	6	1	0	155	19
Chelsea	2008-09	23	3	0	0	1	0	4	0	–		28	3
	Total	23	3	0	0	1	0	4	0	–		28	3
Career total		340	65			1	0	75	14	2	0

Honours

Individual

• Premier League Player of the Month: August 2008
• FIFA World Club Cup Golden Ball: 2006
• UEFA Champions League MVP: 2004
• [[UEFA Club Football Awards|UEFA Best Midfielder

Porto

• Portuguese Liga: 1998-99, 2002-03, 2003-04
• Portuguese Supercup: 1999, 2001, 2003
• UEFA Champions League: 2004
• UEFA Cup: 2003

FC Barcelona

• Spanish Liga: 2004-05, 2005-06
• Spanish Supercup: 2005, 2006
• UEFA Champions League: 2006

Chelsea FC

• FA Cup: 2009

Personal life

When Deco started his European career in 1997, his first wife Cila, whom he had met three years earlier, moved to Portugal with him. Deco and Cila have two sons, João Henrique and Pedro Gabriel, who now live in Brazil with their mother. A few years later, Deco met Jaciara at a party in Salvador (Brazil) and divorced Cila to live with Jaciara in Porto. They married in April 2005 and now have a son and a daughter. They announced their divorce in March 2008. His maternal family is of Japanese heritage and his paternal family is of Portuguese descent.^{citation needed}

Deco is the brother-in-law of fellow footballer Alecsandro, who plays for Internacional and Brazil international Richarlyson.

Deco is an ambassador for the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. He has a charitable organisation, Deco Institute, in the Brazilian city of Indaiatuba, near São Paulo, where he grew up. ⁷

Quotes

This biography of a living person does not cite any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2008) Find sources: (Deco – news, books, scholar)

• "Deco doesn't talk a lot, but when he does, everybody listens" - Lionel Messi
• "World class" - José Mourinho
• "I think one of my bigger mistakes when in Brazil was not signing Deco. Now that we are with Portugal, I am glad I did not." Luiz Felipe Scolari on not inviting Deco to the Brazilian national team during his tenure as head Brazilian coach.
• "My choice of Deco had to do with his technical and professional qualities and his strong determination in reaching the objectives," - Luiz Felipe Scolari on the inclusion of Deco in the Portuguese national team.
• "Deco is the barometer of our season, when he is in form the quality of the game rises, when he is not so good the team as a whole performs less well" -Former Barça Coach Frank Rijkaard
• "He's a great player. It would be foolish to underestimate him" - Ex-Celtic coach Martin O'Neill on Deco during the 2002-03 UEFA Cup Final.
• "He may look like a lost boy in a Japanese comic but Deco is intelligent, focused, hard, arrogant and a superb passer." - British football magazine FourFourTwo on Deco's abilities.
• "Deco looks constantly worried, poor guy, someone should tell him he's good." Sam Potter in an interview with BBC Sport.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Deco

• Deco career stats at Soccerbase
• Match stats, Player Profil and News
• FootballDatabase provides Deco's profile and stats
• FC Barcelona profile
• Deco profile from About.com

Awards
Preceded by Pavel Nedvěd	UEFA Champions League Best Midfielder 2003-04	Succeeded by Kaká
Preceded by Gianluigi Buffon	UEFA Champions League Most Valuable Player 2003-04	Succeeded by Steven Gerrard
Preceded by Kaká	UEFA Champions League Best Midfielder 2005-06	Succeeded by Clarence Seedorf

v • d • e Portuguese Footballer of the Year 1970: Eusébio · 1971: Nené · 1972: Toni · 1973: Eusébio · 1974: Coelho · 1975: Alves · 1976: Chalana · 1977: Bento · 1978: Oliveira · 1979: Costa · 1980: Jordão · 1981: Oliveira · 1982: Oliveira · 1983: Gomes · 1984: Chalana · 1985: Manuel · 1986: Futre · 1987: Futre · 1988: Barros · 1989: Baía · 1990: Domingos · 1991: Baía · 1992: Pinto · 1993: Pinto · 1994: Pinto · 1995: Figo · 1996: Figo · 1997: Figo · 1998: Figo · 1999: Figo · 2000: Figo · 2001: Petit · 2002: Jardel · 2003: Carvalho · 2004: Deco · 2005: Quaresma · 2006: Quaresma · 2007: Simão · 2008: López

Portugal squads v • d • e Portugal squad – UEFA Euro 2004 Runners-up 1 Ricardo • 2 Ferreira • 3 Rui Jorge • 4 Andrade • 5 Couto • 6 Costinha • 7 Figo • 8 Petit • 9 Pauleta • 10 R. Costa • 11 Simão • 12 Quim • 13 Miguel • 14 Valente • 15 Beto • 16 Carvalho • 17 Ronaldo • 18 Maniche • 19 Tiago • 20 Deco • 21 Nuno Gomes • 22 Moreira • 23 Postiga • Coach: Scolari v • d • e Portugal squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place 1 Ricardo • 2 Ferreira • 3 Caneira • 4 Costa • 5 Meira • 6 Costinha • 7 Figo • 8 Petit • 9 Pauleta • 10 Viana • 11 Simão • 12 Quim • 13 Miguel • 14 Valente • 15 Boa Morte • 16 Carvalho • 17 Ronaldo • 18 Maniche • 19 Tiago • 20 Deco • 21 Nuno Gomes • 22 Santos • 23 Postiga • Coach: Scolari v • d • e Portugal squad – UEFA Euro 2008 1 Ricardo • 2 Ferreira • 3 Alves • 4 Bosingwa • 5 Meira • 6 Meireles • 7 Ronaldo • 8 Petit • 9 Almeida • 10 Moutinho • 11 Simão • 12 Nuno • 13 Miguel • 14 Ribeiro • 15 Pepe • 16 Carvalho • 17 Quaresma • 18 Veloso • 19 Nani • 20 Deco • 21 Nuno Gomes • 22 Patrício • 23 Postiga • Coach: Scolari

v • d • e Chelsea F.C. – current squad 1 Čech · 2 Ivanović · 3 A. Cole · 5 Essien · 6 Carvalho · 8 Lampard · 9 Di Santo · 10 J. Cole · 11 Drogba · 12 Mikel · 13 Ballack · 14 Pizarro · 15 Malouda · 16 Sinclair · 17 Bosingwa · 19 Ferreira · 20 Deco · 21 Kalou · 26 Terry (c) · 30 Taylor · 33 Alex · 35 Belletti · 39 Anelka · 40 Hilário · 42 Mancienne · 43 Stoch · 44 Woods · 50 Mellis · — Sturridge · — Turnbull · Manager: Ancelotti