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Date of Birth: Tuesday, October 21, 1975
Birth Place: Portugal
Height: 189cm
Position: Goalkeeper
Former Clubs/Teams: CD Nacional, Académica Coimbra, Varzim SC, FC Porto

Biography

Henrique Hilario is a goalkeeper for Chelsea in the English Premier League. He was once called up to play for Portugal’s B side, but has never been capped at full international level. He is a talented and reliable goalkeeper who is the consummate professional. Whilst he acknowledges that he will be third in the pecking order at Chelsea, he is always willing and ready to put himself on the line for the club.

Childhood

Hilario was born on 21st October 1975 in Gondomar, Portugal. His local team was Porto, so it was a childhood dream come true when he was first of all scouted by them, and then signed up as a youngster.

Early Career

Hilario’s first club was Naval, a local lower-league side, when he was just 19. He impressed sufficiently to move up to the next level with Academica Coimbra taking him on. Another stint of good goalkeeping saw him get his dream move to FC Porto. His first season went well, with Hilario stepping in to play almost half the season when the other goalie suffered an injury, but the dream slowly started to fade when he was back to being the number two at the start of the next season.

Loan spells and the odd string of games for Porto followed, with Hilario doing enough when on loan to reassure Porto that he was good enough, but then not quite making the most of his opportunities when he was recalled.

He headed out on loan to Nacional, and was given the goalie gloves to himself. Another season on loan at Nacional ended with a permanent move to the Madeiran team. Throughout all this, manager Jose Mourinho had been watching intently.

Current Club

Having crossed paths with Hilario, when he was manager of FC Porto (before Henrique was loaned out a second time to Nacional), Jose Mourinho knew exactly who to call when he needed a reliable top-level keeper.

Hilario joined Chelsea on July 1st 2006, and has proven to be a solid and reliable buy. He is a consistent performer who does the simple stuff well, but admits that his struggle against younger, more acrobatic ‘keepers will leave him as the substitute goalkeeper wherever he plays.

He enjoyed a brief run in the team when both Cech and Cudicini were injured, but seems happy to wait on the sidelines to help the team when necessary, rather than demanding a first-team spot himself.

International

Hilario had a brief spell towards the end of the 07/08 season when he was playing week-in, week-out for Chelsea, ahead of Carlo Cudicini. Around this time there were calls for him to be taken into the Portugal squad, but his return to the shadows when Cech returned ensured he wasn’t in the running when the Euro 2008 squad was announced.