Eduardo Carvalho

Eduardo dos Reis Carvalho (Portuguese pronunciation: [iˈðwaɾðu kɐɾˈvaʎu]; born 19 September 1982), known simply as Eduardo, is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Chelsea and the Portugal national team.
He appeared in 134 Primeira Liga games over ten seasons, almost always representing Braga. He also played professionally in Italy, Turkey, Croatia and England.
After gaining the first of his 36 caps for Portugal in 2009, Eduardo was part of the squads in two World Cups and as many European Championships, starting in the 2010 edition of the former tournament.

Club career

Carvalho was born in Mirandela. A product of S.C. Braga's youth system, he first appeared in the Primeira Liga during 2006–07 when he served a six-month loan at S.C. Beira-Mar. In the following season he was also loaned, this time to Vitória de Setúbal, and was as a key player in a Carlos Carvalhal-led side that won the inaugural Portuguese League Cup and thus qualified for the UEFA Cup, with a Man of the match display in the final against Sporting Clube de Portugal where he saved three attempts in the penalty shootout.

Eduardo returned to Braga for the 2008–09 campaign, playing in all the league matches and also in the Minho team's UEFA Cup round-of-16 run. The same happened in the following year – with the club finishing in its best-ever position, second – as he only conceded 20 goals, joint-best in the competition.

On 7 July 2010, Eduardo signed a four-year contract with Serie A's Genoa C.F.C. for €4.8 million, replacing departed Marco Amelia. Braga would also receive a 25% future transfer fee if the former sold the player.

Eduardo started all the games but one for the Italians in his first and only season, in a final midtable position. In July 2011 he returned to his country and joined S.L. Benfica on loan, with the Lisbon club having an option to buy at the end of the campaign.

On 26 June 2012, Eduardo signed for İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor in a temporary deal, joining countryman Carlos Carvalhal (coach) at the Süper Lig team. The following summer he returned to both Portugal and Braga, while still owned by Genoa.

On 27 June 2014, Eduardo joined several compatriots at Croatian side GNK Dinamo Zagreb after agreeing to a three-year contract. On 25 August 2016, after 95 competitive appearances, he signed with Premier League club Chelsea on a one-year deal, being bought in to provide experienced cover and competition to Thibaut Courtois and Asmir Begović.

International career

After UEFA Euro 2008, Eduardo was called for new Portugal national team coach Carlos Queiroz for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Malta and Denmark, when he was understudy to Quim.

He made his full debut on 11 February 2009 in a friendly match with Finland, playing the first 60 minutes in a 1–0 home win, and remained the starter throughout the remainder of the qualifying campaign. He also started in the final stages in South Africa, keeping clean sheets against Ivory Coast, North Korea and Brazil and only conceding in the round-of-16 loss against eventual champions Spain (0–1), where he saved many shots from the opposition, mostly by David Villa.

After being relegated to the bench at his club, Eduardo met the same fate in the national team, to Rui Patrício, and both finished the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying campaign with five games as Portugal qualified for the final stages. He was also named in the squad of 23 for the 2014 World Cup, but only actually played five minutes in the last group stage match against Ghana, coming on for injured Beto.

Club statistics

As of 25 August 2016

Honours

Club

Braga

• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2008

Vitória de Setúbal

• Taça da Liga: 2007–08

Benfica

• Taça da Liga: 2011–12

Dinamo Zagreb

• Croatian First Football League: 2014–15, 2015–16
• Croatian Football Cup: 2014–15
• Croatian Football Super Cup: Runner-up 2014

Country

Portugal

• UEFA European Championship: 2016