Vitor Baia
Baía in 2016
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Vítor Manuel Martins Baía | ||
| Date of birth | 15 October 1969 | ||
| Place of birth | Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal | ||
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||
| Playing position | Goalkeeper | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Leça | |||
| 1983–1988 | Porto | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1988–1996 | Porto | 246 | (0) |
| 1996–1998 | Barcelona | 39 | (0) |
| 1999–2007 | Porto | 160 | (0) |
| Total | 445 | (0) | |
| National team | |||
| 1989–1990 | Portugal U21 | 8 | (0) |
| 1990–2002 | Portugal | 80 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Vítor Manuel Martins Baía, OIH (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈvitɔɾ bɐˈiɐ]; born 15 October 1969) is a retired Portuguese footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
His career was intimately connected with FC Porto, which he started representing professionally still in his teens, helping it to 27 titles and eventually remaining with the club in an ambassadorial role.
Also having played for Barcelona, Baía appeared with the Portugal national team in two European Championships and the 2002 World Cup.
Born in Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto District, Baía joined FC Porto's youth ranks at thirteen, from also northern club Leça FC. In early 1989, he renounced to appear at the FIFA World Youth Championship, as he had relegated Pole Józef Młynarczyk to the bench and his club was still chasing the league title, which eventually eluded them (second place).
Baía made his first-team debuts in a game against Vítoria de Guimarães, and did not lose his starting place for the following seven seasons, winning five leagues and two domestic cups, and conceding only 116 goals (16,5 goals per year). It was between 1994 and 1996 that he made his name as a world-class goalkeeper, being voted for the "ESM Team of the Year" after the 1994–95 season and being named in the "IFFHS' World's Best Goalkeeper of the Year 1995" list, finishing sixth in the voting and improving to fifth in the following year; consequently he was named in the Portugal squad for Euro 1996, being transferred after this tournament to Spain's FC Barcelona, for the highest amount paid for a player in the position in the world.
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