Miguel Veloso

Miguel Luís Pinto Veloso (Portuguese pronunciation: [miˈɣɛl luˈiʃ ˈpĩtu vɨˈlozu]; born 11 May 1986) is a Portuguese former professional footballer. Mainly a defensive midfielder, he could also operate as an attacking left-back.

He started his career with Sporting CP, for whom he appeared in 156 games in all competitions, and spent several years in Italy with Genoa and Hellas Verona, making 214 Serie A appearances. In four years with Dynamo Kyiv in Ukraine, he won as many domestic honours.

A full international since 2007, Veloso earned 56 caps for Portugal, appearing at two World Cups and as many European Championships.

Born in Coimbra, Veloso started his football career at S.L. Benfica, but was rejected for being slightly overweight at the time, entering Lisbon neighbours Sporting CP's youth system at the age of 14. There, he was promoted to the first team for the 2004–05 pre-season, which took place mainly in England; he started out as a central defender.

In order to receive more playing time, Veloso was loaned to C.D. Olivais e Moscavide in the third division, and he helped them to promote to the Segunda Liga with a career-best seven goals. As a result, he was recalled by the Lions — though it appeared difficult for him to grab a place in the starting team, because of the presence of players with much more experience such as Ânderson Polga, Tonel, Marco Caneira or Custódio — and ended up playing 23 Primeira Liga matches during the campaign as his team finished second. He was equally impressive in his debut in the UEFA Champions League, a 1–0 home win against Inter Milan where he stopped Patrick Vieira and Luís Figo from playing effectively, earning Player of the match accolades in the process.

In 2007–08, Veloso was ever-present in Sporting's central midfield alongside fellow youth graduate João Moutinho. The club again lost the league to FC Porto, and the same befell in the following season, with the player being involved in some run-ins with manager Paulo Bento. In the previous off-season and the following January transfer window, he attracted interest from several Premier League sides, but nothing materialised.

Veloso helped Sporting reach the last 16 in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League, after scoring in both legs of the 4–2 aggregate victory over Everton. They could only, however, finish fourth in the domestic league.

On 30 July 2010, Veloso was sold to Genoa CFC in Italy for €9 million, while Alberto Zapater went the other way to Sporting for €2 million. He and compatriot goalkeeper Eduardo debuted in Serie A on 28 August, in a 1–0 win at Udinese Calcio. After a challenging first season at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, his first goal opened a 2–2 home draw with Atalanta BC on 11 September 2011.