Quaresma on Loan to Chelsea

QUARESMA SIGNS ON LOAN
Posted on: Mon 02 Feb 2009

Chelsea
Football Club is delighted to announce that we have signed Inter Milan
winger Ricardo Quaresma on loan until the end of the season. The
Premier League have confirmed the deal.

Quaresma joins us as the
sixth Portuguese player in the first team squad, following the summer
arrivals of José Bosingwa and Deco, who have also worked under manager
Luiz Felipe Scolari at international level.

The 25-year-old
winger can play on either flank, with his qualities of speed and
finesse a regular problem for opposing defences.

Born in Lisbon
on September 26, 1983, Ricardo Andrade Quaresma Bernardo began his
career with local club Sporting, making his debut as a 17-year-old.

While
at Sporting, he worked his way into the first team and became a regular
during the championship-winning 2001/02 season alongside Cristiano
Ronaldo.

He made 59 league appearances in two seasons, scoring
eight goals, before Barcelona approached for his services in the summer
of 2003, paying six million Euros to secure his signature.

His
time at the Catalan club yielded only a handful of starts, and an
injury towards the end of the season saw the youngster miss out on Euro
2004 in his home country. Following the tournament, he returned to
Portugal with Porto, just as Deco was heading to Barcelona.

He
quickly settled, scoring in the 2004 Uefa Super Cup defeat against
Valencia, and was regarded during his four-year stay at Porto as one of
the league's most potent weapons.

Quaresma's form in the
2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 campaigns helped seal a succession of
league championships, and regular Champions League football.

He
is no stranger to Stamford Bridge, having played four times as a Porto
player against the Blues, twice in 2004/05 and twice again two years
later.

In March 2007, Quaresma opened the scoring at the Bridge,
before goals from Arjen Robben and Michael Ballack sealed our
progression into the quarter-finals.

After 124 league
appearances and 24 goals, Quaresma was bought by Inter Milan last
summer, one of José Mourinho's first signings for the club.

Now,
the 5'8 playmaker has the opportunity to rekindle his relationship with
Scolari, who utilised his services in Euro 2008, where he scored the
most recent of his three international goals, in a 3-1 win over Petr
Cech's Czech Republic side.

Quaresma becomes our first and only signing of the winter transfer window, and will stay with us until the end of the season.