Rui Patrício

Portuguese footballer Rui Pedro dos Santos Patrício plays for Sporting as a goalkeeper. He was born on 15 February 1988 in Marrazes.

His youth career started in 2000 at the academy of Leiria Marrazes, where he received trainings in football during a season. In 2001, the young goalkeeper was noticed by the scouts from Sporting CP. He passed all the preliminary tests successfully and was signed to the Sporting youth academy. He spent last five years of his junior career playing for the club’s team.

In the summer 2006, Rui got promotion to the main team. After signing his first professional contract, he officially became a member of Sporting senior squad. At first he made occasional appearances as a starter, spending the majority of matches on the bench as a sub. Later on, the head coach began to give the goalkeeper more chances to reveal his potential. It helped Rui to gain more playing practice. Patrício keeps on performing for the club.

From 2006 until 2009, Rui was the representative of the Portugal national youth team at U-19, U-20, U-21 and U-23 levels. In total he was capped 31 times. Since 2010, Patrício has been called up for the Portugal national squad more than ten times.