Eduardo Carvalho


Eduardo dos Reis Carvalho, known simply as Eduardo, is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
He appeared in 138 Primeira Liga games over 11 seasons, almost always representing Braga. He also played professionally in Italy, Turkey, Croatia, England and the Netherlands.
After winning 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 and winning the 2016 installment of the latter.

Club career

Eduardo was born in Mirandela, Bragança District. 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 Taça da Liga and thus qualified for the UEFA Cup, with a Player of the match display in the final against Sporting CP 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 them finishing in their 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; during his spell at the Estádio da Luz, he appeared in only nine competitive matches.
On 26 June 2012, Eduardo signed for İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyespor in a temporary deal, joining countryman Carlos Carvalhal 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 brought in to provide experienced cover and competition to Thibaut Courtois and Asmir Begović.
In spite of his team being crowned league champions, Eduardo did not receive a medal as he did not appear in any games. He agreed to a one-year contract extension on 23 May 2017, with technical director Michael Emenalo calling him "a model professional".
Despite being listed on Chelsea's released list following the conclusion of 2017–18, Eduardo signed a new one-year contract in July. Early in the same month, he agreed to join Dutch team SBV Vitesse on a season-long loan. He made his competitive debut on 26 July 2018, in a 2–2 draw away to FC Viitorul Constanța for the Europa League second qualifying round.
On 1 July 2019, after no official matches during his stint at Stamford Bridge, Eduardo left the club. The previous week, he had already agreed to a two-year deal at Braga. He played for one season before announcing his retirement at the age of 37.

International career

After UEFA Euro 2008, Eduardo was called up by new Portugal national team coach Carlos Queiroz for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Malta and Denmark, where 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, 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 finals. 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.
An unused member as the side won Euro 2016 in France and Patrício starred, Eduardo made his final international appearance on 1 September 2016 in his first such match for over two years. He kept a clean sheet in the 5–0 friendly win over Gibraltar at the Estádio do Bessa.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Club

Vitória de Setúbal
Braga
Benfica
Dinamo Zagreb
Portugal