Ricardo Quaresma — the embodiment of football’s romanticism

Football is all about diversity. Since the first game, played in 1863, football has brought to us thousands of different personalities. Bright, colourful, exciting and sometimes even tragic; football has seen a lot of fighters, fearless gladiators and champions. You need to be mentally strong to succeed: pressure and temptation are always close at hand. However, the game has always had a place for pure talent. Players who are meant to carry the torch in the darkness and bring that simple joy and excitement for the fans. Those players who have been gifted with that natural footballing talent, which is hard to handle. In the case of Portuguese winger Ricardo Quaresma, the talent was immense. Nevertheless, his career will always be remembered under the “wasted talent” tag.

American professor Leo Buscaglia once said: “Our talents are the gift that God gives to us… What we make of our talents is our gift back to God”. Ricardo Quaresma got that divine gift, namely football talent — only rarely does one see a player of such talent. Just look at that movement. It’s very natural, relaxed, unpredictable. Quaresma has the full range of magnificent skills, such as the rabona and the trivela. Pure talent! If you look at his compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo, you can see the result of hard work — a machine. His movement is more automatic, he’s always under tension. That makes him different from his former teammate. Ronaldo never had as a great talent as Quaresma, but he had that great determination and desire to become the best player in the world.

Quaresma joined the world of professional football at the age of 17, after graduating from his home town club Sporting’s academy. Everyone believed that this extraordinary talent was going to strengthen the Golden Generation of the Portugal national team and later become the new cult figure for all the Portuguese fans. Back then they had Luis Figo, who was living through the prime years of his career. Quaresma looked like the one who could follow in the footsteps of his famous compatriot and bring Portugal to new heights. Cristiano Ronaldo was still too young back then and all eyes were on Quaresma.

It was just a question of time before one of the elite clubs of European football came in for Ricardo Quaresma. He quickly established himself as a key player for Sporting and after two seasons with the Lions, there came an offer from Spanish giants Barcelona. However, it soon proved to be a wrong move, as Quaresma was overshadowed by Brazilian striker Ronaldinho, who joined Barcelona the same summer from PSG. The Brazilian was superb and Quaresma was unable to step out of Ronaldinho’s shadow in his debut season. Conflict with Frank Rijkaard soon followed and the Portuguese hope moved back to his homeland.

Two steps forward, one step back. That’s how one could also describe the career of Quaresma. He took a huge step forward with his move to Barcelona, but he was forced to step back, when he moved to Porto. However, he soon found himself as the one of fan favourites and leaders in the Dragons squad. Quaresma received his fair share of criticism for his overly individualistic and selfish style of play but, overall, fans adored him. Even during times when Porto were losing games, Quaresma remained the one who was beyond criticism. Spectacular moves and goals turned every game into a little spectacle. In most cases, this spectacle had a happy ending. What more could fans ask from their beloved player? Managers also kept faith in his extraordinary talent and they didn’t try to break down or change his style of play. Quaresma always had the freedom he needed. He was always ready to find his way to the goal through the opponent’s defence. Spectacular play and domestic success helped him to raise his value and he once again become a hot target for the leading clubs of European football. Two steps forward were coming in 2008.

“My biggest regret was joining Inter. My happiness and self-confidence were taken away from me. At one point I wasn’t even called up any more. I felt on the margins of the squad and woke up crying when I had to attend training sessions,” remembers Quaresma. Of course, there are no secrets regarding the controversial character of the Portuguese winger. But it’s also hard to disagree with the fact that Jose Mourinho single-handedly killed the career or Ricardo Quaresma. Mourinho had no intention of giving his new signing the freedom he was used to at Porto. Relaxed and free-minded football artists never had a place in the philosophy of The Special One. The cornerstones of his teams were always hard-working all-round players. Maybe less talented and gifted, but well-disciplined and reliable. Quaresma wasn’t ready to adapt to such a style of play. It wasn’t really a fair situation, but no one really cared about the talented winger, as Inter went on to win every trophy on offer. Mourinho only strengthened his legacy with those trophies and no one could argue with or question his methods. Everything turned against Quaresma — his own character, Mourinho and the success of Inter. What’s even more ironic is that Cristiano Ronaldo received the Ballon d’Or award in 2008. That same year, Ricardo Quaresma was awarded the Bidone D’oro, as the worst player of Serie A. It’s easy to imagine the feelings of the Portuguese outcast in that moment. Just a year ago he had the world at his feet and now he was in despair. Everyone was against him.

A loan move to Chelsea came as a chance to resurrect his career. Luiz Felipe Scolari knew very well of what Quaresma was capable, but soon after his arrival in London, there came another blow — Scolari was sacked in February 2009. His time with Chelsea turned into another disaster and after just five appearances for the Blues, Quaresma returned to Italy. As Luis Figo retired, Mourinho sparkled with some optimism about the future of Quaresma, promising him a chance to prove himself. However, that once again turned into a fiasco. Soon it was clear that his career with the Nerazurri had come to an end.

The move to Besiktas was a defining moment in his career, which meant that we were destined never again to see Ricardo Quaresma on the squad-list of any of the leading European sides. There were no managers willing to take up the challenge of resurrecting Quaresma’s career. His top-level career ended far too soon. Just a few hard, dramatic and best-forgotten seasons with Barcelona, Inter and Chelsea. Despite all the odds, Quaresma’s qualities and style of play remained the same. The move to Besiktas turned the Portuguese star into some kind of a football-rockstar. A well-known name with great qualities to entertain the fans and increase the fan-base. A perfect choice to spread your name and quickly increase merchandise sales.

After joining the club in 2010, Quaresma continued to wear the black-striped Besiktas jersey for two seasons. Overall, his performances weren’t so bad. He scored 14 goals in 57 games for Besiktas and the Black Eagles were victorious in their 2010/11 Turkish Cup journey. He left some good memories for the fans and you could even see him wearing the captain’s armband in some matches. However, his time with Besiktas was full of scandals and conflicts. His teammates and management had to deal with his hot temper and Quaresma was often involved in various controversies, which led to an impasse: after conflicts with head coach Carlos Carvalhal and club president Fikret Orman, his career in Turkey came to an end. He was released by the club on 20 December 2012, six months before his contract was due to expire.

After reaching the lowest point of his career at UAE club Al Ahli, Quaresma finally found himself back in Europe. On 1 January 2014, he joined his former side Porto. The King had returned and 10,000 fans came to greet their hero in his first training session with the Dragons. Soon he made his debut against Porto’s biggest rivals — Benfica. The Eagles played really inspiring football and got a deserved win. It was dedicated to their legend — Eusebio. The death of the legendary striker overshadowed the comeback of Quaresma and many didn’t even notice his debut for Porto.

There are examples of players managing to bring their performances to a new level even after the age of 30. But that’s not the case with Ricardo Quaresma. He isn’t going to move to Barcelona, Real Madrid or any other club of such calibre. It’s already too late to make some dramatic changes in his character and style of play. And to be fair, there’s no need for that. Cristiano Ronaldo has proven to be the Portugal’s finest player. But Ricardo Quaresma will always remain Portugal’s finest talent, who never saw his potential fulfilled. Black and white. Yin and Yang.

Life is full of contrasts, with constant examples of good and bad. I can’t say for sure that Ricardo Quaresma was only a bad example. He still had some positive moments in his story. His character may be difficult, bringing a lot of problems for himself and everyone who surrounded him, but at the same time he has always been loyal to the game of football. Quaresma keeps alive that romanticism in football. When he steps onto the pitch his game gives out a clear message: “Hey, this is football, not rugby!” The beautiful, exciting game, full of creativity and meant to bring the best emotions out of fans. Nowadays, football has turned into a worldwide business. Now we can see living brands, a lot of cold “personalities”, who just need to keep their image good and positive. However, football would lose its sense and turn into a useless game, if players like Ricardo Quaresma should disappear. His game isn’t about the results or trophies, and that’s what makes him so special. Quaresma turns football into a display of pure joy and positive emotions. It’s probably impossible to find any other player in the world who would get standing ovations and cheers, when he has just lost the ball after a series of dazzling skills.

Ricardo Quaresma is already 30 years old. If you haven’t been a fan of Quaresma, you should look in on some Porto games. It’s worth it to enjoy his game and pay tribute to his loyalty to the game of football. Don’t focus on the negative headlines and stories that have surrounded him throughout his career. We all know about those kinds of stories and there’s nothing unusual there: football has always been full of bad-boys. Just focus on his game. While his manager keeps faith in him, his game will remain the same. Age doesn’t matter here. Ricardo Quaresma will always remain the same. A divine, romantic and extraordinary talent. The embodiment of the game of football.

This article was originally published in February edition of michel | Football magazine.

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