Matateu

Matateu
Personal information
Full name Sebastião Lucas da Fonseca
Date of birth (1927-07-26)26 July 1927
Place of birth Lourenço Marques, Mozambique
Date of death 27 January 2000(2000-01-27) (aged 72)
Place of death British Columbia, Canada
Playing position Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1951–1964 Belenenses 268 (209)
1964–1967 Atlético 21 (9)
1967–1968 Gouveia
1968–1969 Amora
1969–1970 Chaves
1970–1971 First Portuguese
1972–1974 Sagres Victoria
National team
1952–1960 Portugal 27 (13)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Sebastião Lucas da Fonseca (26 July 1927 – 27 January 2000), known as Matateu (Portuguese pronunciation: [mɐtɐˈtew]), was a Portuguese footballer who played as a striker.

His professional career, which spanned more than 30 years, was closely associated to Belenenses. He won the Bola de Prata twice during his spell with the club, and scored 218 goals in 289 Primeira Liga games, being dubbed the World's Eighth Wonder.[1]

Matateu's was Belenenses most-capped ever player for the Portugal national team.

Club career

Born in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique, Matateu started his career playing for local teams João Albasini, 1º de Maio and Manjacaze. He signed with C.F. Os Belenenses in Portugal in 1951, scoring Primeira Liga 17 goals in 26 games in his first season as the Lisbon side finished in fourth position, and adding 29 in the same number of matches in the following campaign – third place.

From 1953 to 1960, Matateu continued scoring in double digits (a minimum of 14 goals), netting a career-best 32 in 1954–55 for his team's final runner-up position (and his second Silver Ball award). In 1960, he helped his main club win the Portuguese Cup against Sporting Clube de Portugal (2–1); he left in the summer of 1964 at the age of 37, after only appearing in four games in his last two seasons combined due to a serious leg injury from which he never fully recovered.

Matateu then joined neighbouring Atlético Clube de Portugal in the second division, helping to promotion in his second year. In the 1966–67 season – his final in the Portuguese top flight – the 39-year-old contributed with nine goals in 21 games, but the team suffered relegation after ranking second from bottom (13th position); in the following three years, he played with Clube Desportivo de Gouveia in division two and amateur football with Amora F.C. and G.D. Chaves.

Matateu retired from professional football well past his 40's, after spending several years in Canada.

International career

Matateu earned 27 caps for Portugal, and scored 13 goals. After making his debut on 23 November 1952 in a friendly with Austria in Porto, which ended in a 0-0 draw, his last game was against Yugoslavia on 22 May 1960, for the 1960 European Nations' Cup (1–5 away loss, he netted in the first leg, a 2–1 win), aged 32 years old.

Matateu never played internationally with his countryman Eusébio, although he had been called for the last games of the 1962 FIFA World Cup qualifyers (where the other young Mozambican had his debut), but was left off the final teams in the matches with Luxembourg and England.[2]

Personal life / Death

Matateu's younger brother, Vicente, was also a footballer. A defender, he played 13 years with Belenenses (sharing teams with his sibling during ten), and also represented the Portuguese national team.[3]

He died on 27 January 2000 at the age of 72, in the Victoria General Hospital in British Columbia, after a long battle with illness.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Matateu. Ele é que foi o D. Sebastião (Matateu. The real D. Sebastião) Archived 2012-05-25 at the Wayback Machine.; i, 27 January 2010 (in Portuguese)
  2. ↑ António Simões, Eusébio, Como Nunca se Viu, Lisbon, Publicações D. Quixote, 2014
  3. ↑ Grande Vicente! (Great Vicente!); Os Belenenses Blogspot, 27 May 2009 (in Portuguese)
  4. ↑ Lenda do futebol português Matateu tenta vencer a morte (Portuguese football legend Matateu tries to beat death); Record, 7 December 1999 (in Portuguese)
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