Miguel Veloso
Personal information
Full name	Miguel Luís Pinto Veloso
Date of birth	May 11, 1986 (1986-05-11) (age 22)
Place of birth	Coimbra, Portugal
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Defensive midfielder
Club information
Current club	Sporting CP
Number	24
Youth clubs
2001-2005	Sporting CP
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2005-2006 2006-	→ Olivais e Moscavide (loan) Sporting CP	28 (7) 51 (1)
National team2
2007-	Portugal	06 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of June 2nd 2008. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 31 May 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Miguel Luís Pinto Veloso, (born May 11, 1986 in Coimbra), is a Portuguese football player, currently with Sporting Clube de Portugal. He plays mainly as a defensive midfielder, but has also played as a center back (his first position) and left back.

His father is former Portuguese national team and SL Benfica defender António Veloso. His mother is Teresa, and younger sister Raquel.

Early career

Miguel started his career in the SL Benfica youth team where his father became famous. But at the age of 14 he switched to the rivals Sporting Clube de Portugal, where he has played for 5 straight years, eventually training with the first team during the 2004 season.

Sporting Lisbon

In order to give him game time, Sporting CP loaned him to Olivais e Moscavide for the entire 2005-06 season. There, his team accomplished the promotion to Liga de Honra, and Veloso was one of the most influential players in this conquest.

As a result of this positive loan, Sporting recalled him for the 2006-07 season. He was attributed the jersey #24, and it appeared difficult for him to grab a spot in Sporting CP's starting team, because of the presence of players with much more experience, such as Anderson Polga, Tonel, Marco Caneira or Custódio.

However, he proved everyone wrong and played in the Sporting first team for most of the season. He was equally impressive in his UEFA Champions League debut, a 1-0 home win against Inter where he stopped Patrick Vieira and Luís Figo from playing effectively. Before the match, much was made of Figo’s homecoming, but by the end of the ninety minutes all the talk was about Veloso, who turned in a man-of-the-match display in a memorable 1-0 win.

In 2007-08, Veloso was everpresent, along with João Moutinho, in Sporting's lineups throughout the season.

He has been the subject of continued interest from Manchester United since early 2007, and is expected to leave Sporting this summer. After helping Sporting Lisbon lift the Portuguese Cup he told reporters, "I do not know if this was my last game for Sporting, let's see what the future holds for me."

Transfer Speculation 07/08

The Sporting Lisbon midfielder has attracted interest from a host of Europe's top clubs in recent seasons, without a formal approach being made. However, it is now understood that negotiations concerning a potential move to Serie A are already underway. Veloso is currently preparing to represent Portugal at Euro 2008, and is reluctant to discuss his future, but it is thought that a bid of around 25 million euros (£19.8m) could see him on the move during the close season. If Sporting make it clear that they are prepared to let Veloso leave then AC Milan And English quartet: Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham will bid for his signature.

International career

Following Veloso's impressive performances for Portugal's Under-21 side in the European championship in June 2007, there was increasing speculation about his international future. Though Portugal's youngsters were knocked out at the group stages, skipper Veloso scored twice in three games.

On August 14, 2007, Veloso was called up for the Portuguese national squad for the first time, for a Euro 2008 qualifier against Armenia. He would make his international debut against Azerbaijan, on October 13.

References