If you look at his resume, you’ll assume that Ricard Quaresma is extremely talented, but also incredibly problematic. The latter gets truer and truer with each passing season, as the Portuguese winger showed his ugly side during training, kicking teammate Miguel Lopes.
There wasn’t much to the incident before or after. Playing on opposite sides during training, Braga defender Miguel Lopes brought down Quaresma, who felt the foul or the aggressive contact was a bit too much. So what does the ex-wonderkid do? Kick Miguel Lopes rather harshly on the shin, although Lopes didn’t look too troubled by the incident.
If you’re surprised by what Quaresma did, just a look at his season with Besiktas this year, which saw him being suspended indefintley by manager Carlos Carvalhal for speaking rather venomously about the head coach after getting subbes, too early for the ‘star’.
Quarsema, who was brought up through the Sporting youth ranks, was suppose to be more, much more. He got a contract with Barcelona at the age of 19, but didn’t last more than a season. So much for Figo’s heir. He was successful with Porto between 2004 and 2008, but his attempts at finding a spot with a big club – both at Chelsea and at Inter didn’t really come out well, scoring only one goal in two seasons with the clubs.
Quaresma, despite his amazing dribbling skills and talent when his head doesn’t get in the way, will always be an occasional whiff of brilliance, nothing more, at least when it comes to big clubs. Only during his Porto time did he find consistency and probably some peace, finding a way to put his huge ego at rest. Despite everyone in the Portugal side playing the incident down, there’s a good chance Quaresma won’t get a minute in the tournament, whatever remains of it.