Deco Bio

Chelsea signed the Portugal midfielder after a Euro 2008 showing which rolled back the years to his Porto pomp. For £8m the Blues finally signed a player they had long coveted.

At his best, this little midfield magician has the ability to tear teams apart with his fine passing ability.

Yet there had been great concern surrounding the form and fitness of Deco in Portugal ahead of Euro 2008 as he has endured something of a disrupted season at Barcelona. Until that troubled last season, he spent a successful time in Catalunya, adding to his 2004 Champions League success with Porto with two Liga titles and another Champions League win in 2006. At Barca he may have had to play second fiddle to the creative talents of stars like Ronaldinho, Messi and Eto'o yet still was hugely effective until that fall out with Frank Rijkaard during 2007/8 which made his exit all but definite. Few were surprised to see him link up with former Portugal boss Scolari at Chelsea and he was the Brazilian's first signing as Blues boss. Deco is a naturalised Portugese who moved to his adopted country after failing to make the grade at Corinthians in his hometown of Sao Paulo. The same happened at Lisbon giants Benfica, who loaned him to FC Alverca and Salgueiros before catching the eye of FC Porto, where he came under the influence of Jose Mourinho.

At Porto, Deco won three league titles, three domestic cups, the UEFA Cup in 2003 and the Champions League the year after. He was sold to Barcelona after that final victory in Gelsenkirchen in which he scored the second of Porto's three goals in their rout of AS Monaco. He had been expected to join the newly arrived Mourinho at Chelsea but chose the Nou Camp instead.

Having never played for Brazil, he was qualified by his six-year Portugese residency to become a Portugese citizen. There was plenty of opposition to his selection for Portugal, but such is the quality he has displayed since his international debut in 2003 that all such debates have long since subsided. He went some way to ending that talk in his very first game, scoring against Brazil of all teams. Deco was a star at Euro 2004, World Cup 2006 and Euro 2008. He has been a true craque for his adopted country.