João Paulo Pinto Ribeiro (born 8 April 1980), known as João Paulo, is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a centre-forward.
Over nine seasons, he amassed Primeira Liga totals of 140 games and 23 goals for Boavista, Varzim, Beira-Mar, Estoril (two spells), Paços de Ferreira, União de Leiria and Leixões. He also competed professionally in Spain, Romania and Cyprus, mainly at the service of Rapid București.
Club career Having grown through the ranks of Boavista FC, Porto-born João Paulo appeared very little for its first team, being loaned five times for the duration of his contract in both the Primeira Liga and the Segunda Liga of Portuguese football.Boavista vai emprestar Pedrosa (Boavista will loan Pedrosa); Mais Futebol, 15 May 2002 (in Portuguese)Boavista: Ambição por um lugar na Europa é tónico de arranque de época (Boavista: Ambition to fight for Europe sets the tone to start season); Público, 7 July 2004 (in Portuguese) His debut in the top flight came in the 2001–02 season.“Com o Jaime Pacheco a pré-época era qualquer coisa de extraordinário. Levávamos belas tareias, fazia parte da mentalidade dele” ("Preseason was something else with Jaime Pacheco. We got our asses kicked, it was part of his mindset"); Expresso, 20 November 2021 (in Portuguese)
After being released in June 2005, João Paulo had an unassuming stint with Spanish Segunda División club CD Tenerife,João Paulo Pinto inició los entrenamientos en Cantabria dirigidos por Tigre Barrios (João Paulo Pinto started training sessions in Cantabria run by Tiger Barrios); Diario de Avisos, 30 July 2005 (in Spanish) then returned to Portugal in January of the following year with F.C. Paços de Ferreira. He blossomed as a striker in 2007–08 at fellow top-division side U.D. Leiria (eight goals in the league and two in the UEFA Cup, both against Bayer 04 Leverkusen, on home and away legs).Rolfes und Kießling treffsicher (Rolfes and Kießling hit the spot); Kicker, 20 September 2007 (in German)Taça UEFA: U. Leiria-Bayer Leverkusen, 3–2 (crónica) (UEFA Cup: U. Leiria-Bayer Leverkusen, 3–2 (match report)); Mais Futebol, 4 October 2007 (in Portuguese)João Paulo, o goleador português: «Estrangeiros? Por que não?» (João Paulo, the Portuguese scorer: "Foreigners? Why not?"); Mais Futebol, 28 January 2008 (in Portuguese)
João Paulo moved to Romanian club FC Rapid București in January 2008, while Leiria would eventually rank last at the season's end in Portugal. Later that month but two years later, after failing to score more than three times in spite of being regularly played, he returned to his country and joined top-tier strugglers Leixões S.C. until the end of the campaign.João Paulo é o quarto reforço de "Inverno" do Leixões (João Paulo is Leixões' fourth "winter" addition); Jornal de Notícias, 19 January 2010 (in Portuguese)
In June 2010, following Leixões' relegation, João Paulo returned abroad, signing with Olympiakos Nicosia of Cyprus.Chipre: João Paulo está a fazer melhor época de sempre (Cyprus: João Paulo is making best season ever); Mais Futebol, 19 March 2011 (in Portuguese) The following season, the 31-year-old switched to another team in the country, Apollon Limassol FC.João Paulo termina carreira no FC Tirsense (João Paulo ends career at FC Tirsense); Santo Tirso TV, 5 October 2015 (in Portuguese)
Honours Portugal UEFA European Under-18 Championship: 1999Portugal campeão europeu sub-18 (Portugal under-18 European champions); Record, 27 July 1999 (in Portuguese)
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