Player Profile: Hugo Viana
Full name: Hugo Miguel Ferreira Viana
Position: Midfielder
Date of Birth: 15 January 1983
Birthplace: Barcelos, Portugal
Sporting can justifiably be seen as carrying the torch for the future of Portuguese football right now - to João Moutinho and Nani we can now add Yannick Djalo. These stars of world football’s future should bear in mind, however, the story of a player from the same conveyor belt who’s taken a wrong turn or two.
Hugo Viana had it all in front of him, back in the days when France were still invincible and José Mourinho was yet to press his indelible thumbprint on the European football landscape. At 19, Viana was the reigning European Young Footballer of the Year and had played his part in Sporting’s 2001/02 title triumph, only the second time they had won the league since the early 80s. He had already made his debut for the national team (at 18) and was drafted into the 2002 World Cup squad at the last minute.
Premiership challenge
After the tournament he was off to England, whose under-21 team Viana had helped to dump out of that summer’s European Championship with a virtuoso display, to join ex-Sporting coach Bobby Robson’s Newcastle United. The €12 million transfer fee made Viana the British game’s most expensive teenager ever. Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd hailed him as ‘the best young player in the world’, while others compared his left-footed verve to a great Brit of the past, Scotland legend ‘Slim’ Jim Baxter.
Sadly, it didn’t happen for him at St James’ Park. Viana failed to adapt, despite showing flashes of his undoubted ability, and two years (and just 16 starts) later, he was packed off back to Sporting on loan. He looked at home again at the Alvalade straight away, playing more than 40 games and taking his club to the brink of glory in the Superliga and the UEFA Cup. A disastrous end to the season saw Sporting end up empty-handed, yet Viana had regained his direction, and when a permanent switch back to Lisbon didn’t come off, he understandably baulked at the prospect of going back to warming the bench in northern England.
Valencia move
Fate intervened, as a serious knee injury to Valencia’s new signing Edu prompted their coach Quique Sanchez Flores to take Viana to Spain on a year’s loan. Yet once again the Portuguese struggled abroad, finding it hard to force his way into the first 11 in the midst of a crowded and multi-talented squad at the Mestalla – he started just four times in 2005/06.
Despite spending four seasons in La Liga, including a brief loan spell at Osasuna, Viana was unable to recapture the form that had made him such a hot prospect early in his career.
Braga years
In the summer of 2009 he spent a season-long loan at Braga. An excellent campaign saw Viana put his barren years behind him and play with a smile on his face again. The move was made permanent and Viana got successively better over the following two seasons.
He played a key role in Braga’s exciting emergence as a genuine challenger for the top honours in Portugal, as well as their historic European campaigns in the Champions League and Europa League, losing in the final of the latter competition to FC Porto in 2011.
Viana had now firmly re-established himself as one of Portugal’s top midfielders, and his omission from Paulo Bento’s initial Euro 2012 squad led to much debate in the Portuguese press, with many claiming it was folly to leave behind the player who had arguably been the best midfielder in the Liga ZON Sagres in 2011/12. Fate intervened, and an injury to Carlos Martins, a former team-mate of Viana’s at Sporting, opened the door for Viana to join the sqaud travelling to Ukraine and Poland.
by Andy Brassell & Tom Kundert (last updated, 23/05/2012)
| Club |
Appearances* |
Goals |
| Sporting |
26 |
1 |
| Newcastle United |
39 |
2 |
| Sporting |
32 |
6 |
| Osasuna |
9 |
1 |
| Valencia |
44 |
2 |
| Braga** |
78 |
9 |
| |
|
|
| PORTUGAL** |
26 |
1 |
* League appearances only
** Up to 1 March 2009
|
