Ricardo Esteves

Ricardo Felipe dos Santos Esteves (born 16 September 1979) is a retired Portuguese footballer. On the right side of the pitch, he could play as either a defender or midfielder.

He played in 117 Primeira Liga games over the course of seven seasons, representing Vitória de Setúbal, Alverca, Benfica, Braga, 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. 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 Primeira Liga, all in the same season. He was loaned once during his contract, and also had a brief spell with farm team 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 (two) and Vicenza Calcio 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 and Asteras Tripoli FC. In January 2010 he was sold to FC Seoul, 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.

International career
All youth levels comprised, Esteves won 53 caps for Portugal (no goals). He participated with the under-20s in the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship held in Nigeria; in the round of 16 against Japan, as the team had no substitutes left and Sérgio Leite got injured, he played as a goalkeeper for more than one hour, conceding no goals in regulation time in an eventual 4–5 penalty shootout loss (1–1 after 120 minutes).