Grande Vitor Baía!

O reconhecimento vem sempre de fora.. porquê???

Tenho nojo deste país que tem o futebolista com mais títulos a nível mundial e que não teve direito sequer a jogo de despedida na selecção Nacional..

Imaginem se Vitor Baía fosse espanhol ou Francês por exemplo...

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/news/newsid=660433.html#baia+my+brilliant+career:

Baia: My brilliant career
(FIFA.com) Monday 17 December 2007

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Vitor Baia is one of the most successful players in the history of football. The goalkeeper collected 30 titles throughout a 20-year career at the top level with FC Porto, FC Barcelona and the Portuguese national team. He bid a fond farewell to Porto's fans at the end of the 2006/07 season, after he collected his tenth championship-winners medal.
Baia exchanged the goalkeeping gloves for the suit and tie and accepted the challenge of being the new director of international relationships at his beloved Porto. In an exclusive interview with FIFA.com, Baia looks back at the days on the pitch, the joys, the glory, but also the bad times.
FIFA.com: Vitor Baia, six months after putting an end to your professional career, do you miss it?

Vitor Baia: To be honest, I thought I'd miss it a lot more. I finished my career aware of the step I was going to take and with the knowledge that a new era in my life was beginning. But the day my former colleagues started the 2007/08 pre-season camp I trembled a little, before thinking: it's really over.
You started a new challenge, as the director of international relations of FC Porto. What does that involve?

My time is split between college in the morning - where I am taking a course on Sports Management, and truly committed to finishing it - and the new task at the club in the afternoon: I'm their representative in meetings with UEFA, G-14 and I'm always present at UEFA Champions League draws.
Many former players choose to immediately start a career as a coach. Have you ever thought of doing that?

Not every player has to become a coach. If they all did that many people would be out of a job. I think I would have the skills to be a good coach, but the moment never came and I honestly think I can be much more useful to the club, and Portuguese football, in my current role.
I don't mean to brag, but it was truly brilliant: I've won almost everything I could have won and those titles will perpetuate my name throughout time.

Vitor Baia

Looking more closely at you career as a goalkeeper, you tasted success on a great number of occasions.I don't mean to brag, but it was truly brilliant: I've won almost everything I could have won and those titles will perpetuate my name throughout time. It's not every day that a player wins the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Cup, the Cup Winners Cup and the Intercontinental Cup, among many other national titles.
Which of those titles made you happiest? Emotionally, and due to the fact that I was playing with the team I love, it was the UEFA Cup in 2003. It was my first international title with FC Porto and it came after an extraordinary match against Celtic, decided in extra-time (3-2). It made me go crazy with joy. The next year we won the Champions League, something that every players dream of, but, by then, we were already a winning team and that final was much easier (a 3-0 win against AS Monaco).
How does it feel to be a living symbol of FC Porto and also of Portuguese football?

The only way a player can do so is by winning titles. A person may say, every day of his life, that he's the best player in the world, but the day he forgets to say it, people will forget about him. A career depends on titles, I achieved a lot and no one can take them away from me. Words don't mean much.
Nowadays, it's not usual for a professional player to spend his entire career in only two clubs: you did that with FC Porto and FC Barcelona. Due to some characteristics, Barcelona and Porto are very much alike. Both teams are far from the country's capital and I've enjoyed learning a lot about Barcelona. I spent two and a half years there: it's not much, but enough to win the Cup Winners Cup, two Spanish Cups and one Spanish Supercup. Obviously I was not happy how I left Barça - after some problems with the coach (Louis van Gaal) - but I'll never forget the happy days I spent there.

Was there something you would have liked to achieve and didn't?

Yes. I would have loved to win an international title with the Portuguese national team. We always had very strong teams but always missed something and I believe that a generation of players like Luis Figo, Rui Costa and Paulo Sousa, amongst others, should have done it. We didn't and I have to be happy with the third place in EURO 2000.

What where the most important moments of you career outside of the pitches?

Signing with Barcelona was very important, because it gave me an international status. Besides that, I will always remember the day I came back to FC Porto, an incredible moment: the streets where full of people to see me arrive, I was carried on people's shoulders and the stadium was sold out for my second debut with the club.
Such as in life, football also has some bad days and you also experienced a few problems.I had four operations on my knees that stopped me from playing for two years. I even thought that my career had come to an end, but I was able to recover and that period made me look at things in a different perspective.
Besides that, I feel sad when I think about the way that my international career ended. I played 80 games for Portugal, but after the FIFA World Cup™ in 2002 I was kept out of Mr. Scolari's squads without any explanation. It's kind of strange because I was voted as being the best goalkeeper in Europe in the 2003/04 season and a few days before the squad for UEFA EURO 2004 was announced I'd won the Portuguese championship and the UEFA Champions League and even then I wasn't called up.

In my opinion, no country can afford not to call the best European goalkeeper to its team, but that happened to me.

Vitor Baia
In my opinion, no country can afford not to call the best European goalkeeper to its team, but that happened to me. Looking back, I truly believe that the national team lost out more than I did, but it was a huge disappointment to miss out on playing at a European Championship in my home country.
You first signed for FC Porto at the age of 14 and there is a nice story about it.

Yes. I was playing for Academica de Leca in a small tournament and I knew there was a scout from Porto in the stands looking at me and Domingos (a future Portuguese international). My team was very strong and gave no chances to the opposition, so they rarely had a shot on goal. In the end, the scout said that he was signing Domingos, who scored a lot of goals, but he chose the other goalkeeper, because he had a lot more to do in the game. Despite that, my coach from Academica de Leca insisted that they signed me instead, something which happened a few days later. It's strange to think how my life could have been very different!
You made your debut in the main Portuguese championship for FC Porto at the age of 19 and you became an international player two years after that. You always had the No1 jersey until the day you returned to FC Porto after the spell in Barcelona. Why did you choose No99?It's also a funny story. When I got back to FC Porto, in January of 1999, No1 was already taken. So I called the marketing department of FC Porto asking if I could be No99 and they loved the idea. The sales of those jerseys were a success and even my foundation is called Vitor Baia 99.
What are the main objectives of your foundation?The creation of such an institution was always one of my main objectives. I believe that professional players have a huge social responsibility and I've always liked to help those who need. I had been doing that for some years when the foundation was created to help children and youngsters that have all sorts of problems.
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User comments »
Vítor Baía is simply the best, the biggest!!! Congratulations for you Vítor, you deserve all of the trophies and titles that you won. Thank you to make happy me and the other FC Porto fans. Nº99 forever!
Posted by MArcoSilvA, Portugal on 17/12/2007 at 18:31
Baia, are and will be eternal. The best ever. Besides great and genial player, a Great Man. You were a true leader on the field. I hope also be the leader FC Porto in the short term. You have the ideal profile to chair the SAD. Partner No. 90182 of FCP. It will be a great pleasure to have the privilege of knowing you personally, because I think that you are a human being brilliant at all levels.
Posted by hrcosta, Portugal on 17/12/2007 at 18:13
great career really, probably the overall player that won the most in his career with his clubs (FC porto and Barcelona)but those two teams were really great teams and could win a losts of trophy`s playing at a very high level. A shame that Vitor Baia could not play the same when he played for the Portuguese national team and Portuguese coach Scolari had his reasons to not call him for the team since he arrived on Portuguese national team. i still remenber Poborsky goal on euro 1996 and the match against USA on world Cup 2002. but one thing i know he was one of the greatest portuguese sports man of all time. VIVA Vitor Baia one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time.
Posted by NCorreia, Switzerland on 17/12/2007 at 16:32
For all of FC Porto supporters, this is the nem ber ONE! Just want to know if it was Mr.Scolari's decision or Portuguese FA decision to left him out of the portuguese squad!The greatest gooalkeeper of the portuguese football!
Posted by eichpo97, Portugal on 17/12/2007 at 15:44
Victor's carisma and values were always something all of us Porto supporters admired. Apart from being a genial goalkeeper with his technical and physical abilities, he was also a leader in the field and the locker-room. His career is simply outstanding for a goalie and there's gonna take some time for another keeper to achieve more. His omission from the national team was a bad joke which half of the nation didn't understand. It is fantastic to know he wants to stay working with the club he loves. He will only add value and accountability to our image across the world. Shame the Portuguese FA doesn't see the same.
Posted by jicass, Spain on 17/12/2007 at 14:02
For all of us, Porto supporters, this is the man on the pitch that means the most! Baía is a huge part of our history, that we will never forget. Even in a suit and tie, he is worthy of a standing ovation each time he is at the Dragão. In our minds, Seville and Gelselkirchen: always there! Thank you Vitor. Biba o Porto, carago!
Posted by Erdnaep, Portugal on 17/12/2007 at 10:37

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in http://www.ojogo.pt/

As quatro operações ao joelho e o afastamento da equipa nacional de futebol, "sem qualquer explicação", foram os momentos mais amargos da carreira de Vítor Baía, que faz o balanço da carreira no site oficial da FIFA. "Depois do Mundial de 2002, fui afastado das equipas do senhor Scolari sem qualquer explicação. Foi um pouco estranho porque tinha sido eleito o melhor guarda-redes de 2003/2004. Poucos dias depois de terem sido anunciados os convocados para o Euro’2004, sagrei-me campeão nacional e venci a Liga dos Campeões. Mesmo assim, não fui chamado", lamentou o antigo guarda-redes do FC Porto. Para o actual director das relações internacionais do clube portista, que deixou as balizas no final da última época, "nenhum país abdica de chamar o melhor guarda-redes da Europa", pelo que foi uma "extrema desilusão" falhar o Europeu organizado por Portugal. "Olhando para trás, tenho a convicção que a selecção portuguesa perdeu mais que eu, mas foi uma extrema desilusão não poder jogar o Europeu disputado no meu país", confessou o antigo guarda-redes ao site da FIFA. Além da precoce despedida da selecção portuguesa, Vítor Baía refere as quatro operações ao joelho como outro dos momentos mais amargos da sua carreira de 20 anos, durante os quais coleccionou 30 títulos, ao serviço de FC Porto e Barcelona. "Fui submetido a quatro operações ao joelho, que me obrigaram a dois anos de paragem. Cheguei a pensar que a minha carreira tinha acabado, mas tive a capacidade de recuperar. Esse período ajudou-me a encarar as coisas de uma perspectiva diferente", salientou. Sobre o final da carreira, depois de ter perdido a titularidade para o brasileiro Helton, actual dono da baliza dos dragões, Vítor Baía admitiu que as saudades dos relvados nem sequer são assim tão dolorosas. "Honestamente, pensava que ia ser mais doloroso. Terminei a carreira consciente do passo que ia dar e da nova etapa que ia começar. Mas no dia em que os meus antigos colegas começaram a preparar a época de 2007/2008 tremi um pouco e pensei ‘acabou mesmo’", reconheceu o antigo jogador. Sem falsas modéstias, Vítor Baía considera ter tido uma carreira "brilhante", assente nos vários títulos nacionais e internacionais, entre eles a Liga dos Campeões, a Taça UEFA, a extinta Taça dos Vencedores das Taças e a última edição da Taça Intercontinental (agora Mundial de Clubes). "Ganhei quase tudo o que havia para ganhar e esses títulos vão ajudar também a perpetuar o meu nome. A carreira de um jogador depende de títulos e eu conquistei muitos. Agora ninguém mos pode tirar", frisou. Para Vítor Baía, faltou apenas um triunfo com as cores da Selecção Nacional, algo que esteve perto de conseguir no Europeu de 2000, onde Portugal terminou no terceiro posto, depois de eliminado nas meias-finais pela França. "(A selecção) Sempre teve equipas muito fortes, mas perdeu sempre qualquer coisa. A geração de jogadores como Luís Figo, Rui Costa e Paulo Sousa, entre outros, merecia tê-lo alcançado. Não o conseguimos, mas tenho de estar feliz com o terceiro lugar no Euro2000", admitiu. "

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