Luís Boa Morte

Luís Boa Morte Pereira (Portuguese pronunciation: [luˈiʒ ˈβoɐ ˈmɔɾtɨ]; born 4 August 1977) is a Portuguese football coach and a former professional football player who played as an attacking winger, forward and centre midfielder.[3]

"Boa Morte" redirects here. For the band, see Boa Morte (band).

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Boa Morte and the second or paternal family name is Pereira.
Luís Boa Morte
Boa Morte playing a friendly in 2017
Personal information
Full name Luís Boa Morte Pereira[1]
Date of birth (1977-08-04) 4 August 1977
Place of birth Lisbon, Portugal
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[2]
Position(s) Winger, midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Fulham (coach)
Youth career
1994–1996 Sporting CP
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1996–1997 Sporting CP 0 (0)
1996–1997 → Lourinhanense (loan)
1997–1999 Arsenal 25 (0)
1999–2001 Southampton 14 (1)
2000–2001 → Fulham (loan) 39 (18)
2001–2007 Fulham 166 (26)
2007–2011 West Ham United 91 (2)
2011–2012 AEL 7 (0)
2012 Orlando Pirates 3 (0)
2012–2013 Chesterfield 12 (0)
Total 357 (47)
International career
2004 Portugal Olympic (O.P.) 1 (0)
2001–2009 Portugal 28 (1)
Managerial career
2017–2018 Sintrense
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Having come through the youth ranks with Sporting CP, Boa Morte joined Premier League side Arsenal in 1997. He went on to play in England's top flight for Southampton, Fulham and West Ham United. He was released in 2011 and joined Greek side Larissa before moving on to South African club Orlando Pirates. In October 2012, he returned to England and joined fourth-tier side Chesterfield.

Part of the Portugal national team from 2001 to 2009, Boa Morte earned 28 caps for Portugal. He was selected for the 2004 Olympics and the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Sporting CP

Born in Lisbon to parents from São Tomé and Príncipe,[4] Boa Morte started his professional career with Sporting Clube de Portugal.

Arsenal

Boa Morte made his debut in English football for Arsenal when he became one of Arsène Wenger's first signings for the club, joining for a fee of £1.75 million.

He made his debut on 23 August 1997 as a substitute against Southampton. During Arsenal's double winning 1997–98 season, he made 15 league appearances, mostly as substitute and four in the FA Cup,[5] although he did not appear in the final itself. He scored two goals this season, with both coming in a League Cup tie against Birmingham City.[5][6]

The following season, he was a fairly regular squad member, usually as substitute in the early part of the season, with a few European Cup appearances, including against Panathinaikos on 9 December 1998, when he scored Arsenal's third goal.[7] His fourth and final Arsenal goal came against Preston North End in the FA Cup.[8] He came on as a substitute as Arsenal won the 1999 FA Charity Shield.[9] His final appearance for Arsenal was as a second-half substitute away to Sunderland on 14 August 1999.

Southampton

In his season at The Dell, he made a total of 17 appearances, mostly as substitute, with one goal – a thundering left foot drive at Watford in a 2–3 defeat on 28 December 1999.[10]

Fulham
Boa Morte in action for Fulham

In his first season at Fulham, he helped Jean Tigana's side win the 2000–01 Division 1, making 39 league appearances and scoring 18 goals as Fulham ran away with the Championship with a total of 101 points.[11][12] His contributions to the championship-winning season resulted in him being signed permanently in June 2001 (on a fee of £1.7 million paid to Arsenal), despite Southampton's attempts to bring him back after the expiry of the loan arrangement.

In Fulham's first two seasons in the Premiership, he was not able to replicate his form of the Championship-winning season, scoring only three goals, although his form returned to some extent in 2003–04, since when he averaged eight goals per season. He gave away all of his kit to the fans on the last game of the season, including his shorts. He was also voted Player of the Season for 2004–05 and got the nickname Dead Snake as joking mistranslation of his surname.[13]

Boa Morte accused Everton forward Duncan Ferguson of racial abuse after an FA Cup fourth round match in January 2004. The accusation was dismissed by the Football Association, who found insufficient evidence.[14]

In August 2005 Boa Morte was made team captain.[15] On 19 March 2006, he scored the only goal in the 1–0 win over league leaders and reigning champions Chelsea in the West London derby at Craven Cottage; it was Fulham's first win over their neighbours since 1979.[16]

He became a favourite amongst Fulham's supporters whilst he played for them, for his impassioned, never-say-die and sometimes aggressive style of play – although this led to problems with referees.[17] Even though his form dipped towards the end of his Fulham career, he was considered something of a cult hero there due to his ability to take players on, his ability to "cause panic like an unpinned grenade in the opposition ranks", and his "emotional character, a trait that strengthened the bond between him and the fans".[18]

West Ham United
Boa Morte with West Ham in 2010

Boa Morte signed for West Ham United in January 2007 on a three and a half year contract for an undisclosed fee, which was believed to be around £5 million.[19]

He played his first game for the Hammers in an FA Cup tie against Brighton & Hove Albion, setting up two goals and on 13 January 2007 in the Premier League against former team Fulham. On 28 April 2007, he scored his first goal for the club in an important 3–0 win against Wigan Athletic at the JJB Stadium.[20] On 29 July 2009, Boa Morte picked up a serious injury in the pre-season friendly against Tottenham Hotspur. West Ham were playing in the Barclays Asia Trophy in Beijing when Boa Morte got his studs stuck in the ground, twisted his knee and suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury.[21] Boa Morte made his comeback from injury on 13 April 2010, playing 45 minutes in a reserve team 4–1 defeat by Wolves reserves.[22] Making an appearance in the first team for the first time since the end of 2008–09 season he opened the scoring for West Ham against Manchester City in a 1–1 draw on 9 May 2010.[23] It was his first goal for West Ham for over three years.[24] In June 2010, West Ham Chairman David Sullivan announced that Boa Morte had been offered a new deal as his contract was due to finish at the end of the 2009–10 season.[25] On 17 June 2010, Boa Morte signed a new two-year contract saying that he was looking forward to working with new West Ham manager, Avram Grant for the next two seasons.[26] In August 2011 Boa Morte's contract with West Ham was cancelled by mutual consent.[27]

AEL

In August 2011 Boa Morte signed a two-year contract with AE Larissa.[28] He thus rejoined former coach Chris Coleman whom he worked with over four years at Fulham FC. Luis Boa Morte signaled his intent to help Larissa back to top flight football in Greece. He provided his first assist in an impressive 3–0 away win over Veria F.C. on 20 November 2011. However, he left in January 2012, just six months into his stay, due to financial problems at the club. He was immediately linked with moves to South African Premier League sides Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs.[29]

Orlando Pirates

On 24 January 2012, it was confirmed by Orlando Pirates boss Irvin Khoza that Boa Morte had signed an 18-month deal.[30] He made only two starts for Pirates and left the club on 14 May.[31]

Boa Morte joined Football League One team Portsmouth on trial on 27 September 2012, along with Ákos Buzsáky.[32]

Chesterfield

On 10 October 2012, Boa Morte signed for League Two side Chesterfield. He commented "The most important thing for me now is to play football," and confirming the initial length of his contract added "I'll be here until the end of January but that doesn't mean I won't stay until the end of the season." The move followed a chance meeting with former Fulham teammate Mark Crossley who was a coach with the club.[33] His contract was not renewed in January 2013 and he left the club.[34]

In August 2013, Boa Morte joined Four Marks, ranked bottom in the Hampshire Premier League in the 11th tier of the English football league system.[35] He knew their manager, who used to run security at Fulham.[10]

International career

Boa Morte made his debut for the Portugal national football team on 25 April 2001 in a friendly 4–0 defeat away to World and European champions France, as an 87th-minute substitute for Rui Jorge. His only goal came in a 5–1 home win against Angola on 14 November that year,[36] a game which had to be abandoned when the African team were reduced to six players on the pitch.[37]

Boa Morte was not selected by manager Luiz Felipe Scolari for UEFA Euro 2004. His former Fulham teammate Louis Saha publicly called the omission "revolting and scandalous", and advised Boa Morte never to play for Portugal again.[38] Later that year, he was included in the under-23 team for the Olympic tournament in Greece in which they came bottom of their group. He was sent off early in the second half of a 4–2 loss to Iraq for a kick at Bassim Abbas, in a match that received widespread media coverage due to the ongoing war in the opponents' nation.[39]

Boa Morte was part of Scolari's team that came fourth at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, playing ten minutes in place of captain Luís Figo at the end of a 2–1 win over Mexico in the final group game.[40] After an absence of three years, he was recalled by Carlos Queiroz on 29 May 2009.[41] He earned his first cap since 2006 on 6 June in a2–1 win in Tirana against Albania in a 2010 World Cup qualifier.[42] He made 27 appearances, scoring once, for Portugal from 2001 to 2009.[43]

Coaching career

After retiring, Boa Morte immediately spent time assisting the coaches at the Fulham academy.[44] In the summer 2014, Boa Morte was appointed assistant manager of Sporting CP B, the reserve team of Sporting CP.[45] After three months, he was appointed manager of the U19's of the club.[46] He was in charge until the end of the season, where he moved to Arsenal and worked as a scout.[47] He left Arsenal in February 2017, to become manager of Sintrense.[48][49]

In June 2018, he was appointed manager of Portimonense's U23 squad.[50] He left the position to become assistant manager of Maccabi Haifa on 15 January 2019.[51]

In June 2019, Boa Morte was appointed as assistant manager to compatriot Marco Silva at Everton.[52][53] He was sacked, along with Silva, in December.[54]

Following Silva's appointment as manager at Fulham in July 2021, Boa Morte joined him as first team coach.[55]

Personal life

Boa Morte made a guest appearance as himself in a February 1999 episode of the BBC children's drama series Grange Hill, giving out prizes at a school sports day.[56] He appeared on the MTV reality series Cribs, showing viewers a relatively modest detached house in Surrey and his Vauxhall Corsa; he said that he had never been in his own garden.[57][58]

Boa Morte's nephew Aylton (born 1993) was also a professional footballer, playing as a winger.[59]

Career statistics

Club
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[60]
Club Season League National Cup League Cup Continental Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Arsenal 1997–98 Premier League 150401210212
1998–99 80112031142
1999–2000 2000000020
Total 250513241374
Southampton 1999–2000 Premier League 141102000171
Fulham (loan) 2000–01 First Division 39181063004621
Fulham 2001–02 Premier League 231303110302
2002–03 2922011112435
2003–04 3395110003910
2004–05 318513000399
2005–06 356101100377
2006–07 150000000150
Total 166261629312220333
West Ham United 2006–07 Premier League 141200000161
2007–08 270104000320
2008–09 270302000320
2009–10 1100000011
2010–11 220204000280
Total 91280100001092
AEL 2011–12 Football League Greece 7000000070
Orlando Pirates 2011–12 Premier Soccer League 3000000030
Chesterfield 2012–13 League Two 120100000130
Career total 3574732329816343561

International
Appearances and goals by national team and year[61]
National teamYearAppsGoals
Portugal 200141
200220
200360
200470
200550
200620
200700
200800
200920
Total281

International goal
Scores and results list Portugal's goal tally first.[62]
NoDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.14 November 2001Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon, Portugal Angola4–15–1Friendly match

Honours

Arsenal

Fulham

Orlando Pirates

Individual

Orders

References
  1. "2006 FIFA World Cup Germany: List of Players: Portugal" (PDF). FIFA. 21 March 2014. p. 22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 June 2019.
  2. "Luis Boa Morte". Soccerbase. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  3. "2014/15 UEFA Youth League Sporting CP squad". UEFA. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  4. Path: /Published/CityPress/2012/01/29/CP/Texts/dmBoaMorte.xml Creator: system Last Modified by: lklootwyk Print Chanal: Media_24_CityPress Edition: CP Publication Date: 201201... Archived 8 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Games played by Luís Boa Morte in 1997/1998". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  6. Wood, Greg (14 October 1997). "Arsenal's extra reserves". The Independent. London. Retrieved 4 November 2009.
  7. Pierce, Bill (9 December 1998). "Anelka inspires amazing Arsenal triumph". The Independent. London. Retrieved 4 November 2009.
  8. Hodgson, Guy (4 January 1999). "Preston fall as Overmars leads revival". The Independent. London. Retrieved 4 November 2009.
  9. Lacey, David (2 August 1999). "Arsenal play their troubles away". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
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  12. "English Division One 2000-2001". Statto. Archived from the original on 11 April 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
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