Heurelho da Silva Gomes is a Brazilian goalkeeper, born in João Pinheiro, Minas Gerais.
The player began his career in 2002 in Brazil, where he was included in Cruzeiro first team. There he soon managed to become a first-choice goalkeeper and made 59 appearances during two seasons, when Dutch side PSV scouts noticed him in 2004. In the summer of 2004 Heurelho moved to the Netherlands as ‘The Red Whites’ bought him for €1 million.
On 11 August 2004, the Brаzilian player made his debut for the Eindhoven side club in the match against Red Star Belgrade. Gomes spent four years in the Dutch team and had many honours. He became the Eredivisie Champion four times and made his way through to the UEFA Champions League quarter-final and semi-final. By the way, Gomes always was number one in the club and he never let anybody take the place between the posts by football reasons. However, that time the main problem of the Brazilian keeper came to light. He was instable, because Heurelho could make both tremendous saves and howlers that led to goals.
In 2008 the Brazilian keeper signed for London side Tottenham that was looking for a full-grown substitute for Paul Robinson, who left the club. Spurs were renewing the squad at that time and paid about £7.8 million for the goalkeeper. As some sources say, the head coach of Tottenham Juande Ramos took personal interest in signing the footballer.
Heurelho definitely ruined his debut in his first English Premier League season, but there was a certain reason for that. The whole team had a bad start of the season; that start was actually the worst in the history. Juande Ramos had to pay for the dreadful results, so he was sacked. However, his successor Harry Redknapp did not send Gomes to the substitutes’ bench. Instead of that, he supported the Brazilian goalkeeper. As a result, Spurs started to go forward at a steady gait and Heurelho began to get back the skills he had in PSV. Later on the goalkeeper finally got stronger and gained self-confidence, demonstrating a high playing level in every match, although some time before even fans had laughed at him.
In 2009/2010 Gomes eventually became the backbone of Spurs. He pulled off great saves in the first match of that season against Liverpool. However, the Brazilian goalkeeper’s foul gave the Merseyside team a penalty and Steven Gerrard successfully used that opportunity. Heurelho was seriously injured in the match against Hull City and had to skip several league and FA Cup matches. Carlo Cudicini took his place, but he failed to make a good substitution for a first-choice goalkeeper. Gomes got back on the pitch and performed even better that before he had been injured. The keeper was even praised by illustrious Arsenal back Tony Adams. Tottenham managed to make its way through to the Champions League for the first time in the history of the club mainly due to the efforts of the Brazilian footballer. Gomes also became one of the best Premier League goalkeepers, conceding only 26 goals in 31 matches.
The 2010/2011 was darkened by another serious injury that the goalkeeper got at the end of summer. Heurelho was left without football for two months and Cudicini took his place again. By the way, Spurs had to urgently sign Spartak Moscow goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa on loan. Gomes’s problems began to come back in the UEFA Champions League 2nd leg tie against Real Madrid, when the keeper conceded a ridiculous goal from Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese player took a long kick that was not really strong, but the ball slipped out of the keeper’s hands into the goal. Spurs were hammered in that match and lost all chances to make their way to semi-final. Gomes’s position was seriously shaken.
He spent the 2011/2012 season on the substitutes’ bench and came on the pitch only in the Europa League matches. 40-year-old Brad Friedel became a new first-choice goalkeeper. He was signed by Tottenham on a free transfer. In 2013 Gomes was loaned out to German Hoffenheim. In 2014 Gomes moved to Watford.
Gomes made his debut for the Brazil national team in 2003. Later he was a reserve goalkeeper of his national team in the 2005 and 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and in the 2010 World Cup.
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