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Vaz-Te Profile

 

Ricardo Vaz Te, Bolton Wanderers

Ricardo Vaz-Te

Born: Lisbon, Portugal, 1st October 1986

International Honours: Portugal Youth, U21

Position: Forward

Squad Number: 20

Former Clubs: Sporting Farense (Portugal)

A skillful young Portuguese striker who is continuing his excellent progression in the top tier of English football.

Vaz-Te scored nine goals in his first three youth academy matches having successfully completed trials with Bolton just over two years ago.

This early promise in front of goal was to understandably make people sit up and take an early note of the talent which this teenage hot shot had at his disposal.

Many tried to compare him with England's Wayne Rooney due to the age similarity, but Sam Allardyce was keen for the youngster to continue his development in the reserves and youth team.

He continued to stand head and shoulders above the players of a similar age, and it was getting harder and harder for Allardyce to keep him amongst the youth set-up.

Midway through the 2003-2004 season the player was invited to train with the first team squad, and it wasn't long before he was given an opportunity in the senior side.

An FA Cup match away to Division 2 team Tranmere Rovers gave the Wanderers an ideal opportunity to give young players and reserves the chance to show what they could do and Vaz-Te caught the eye as a substitute during that cold day at Prenton Park.

He managed to start the full game in the replay against Rovers by sitting in a more withdrawn midfield role behind the two main strikers Delroy Facey and Mario Jardel.

Although Bolton lost the game in extra time owing to a spectacular strike from Iain Hume, they could take heart from yet another encouraging performance from the ever improving Vaz-Te.

These displays put him very much at the forefront of Sam Allardyce's thinking, and he was named amongst the substitutes for the Carling Cup Semi Final second leg game against Aston Villa in January 2004.

He remained stuck on the bench for the Premiership games against Charlton Athletic, Leicester City, Arsenal and Newcastle before finally being given his Premiership debut away at Middlesbrough in April 2004 when replacing Ivan Campo.

Season 2004-2005 brought him into the limelight even further and gave the Bolton public yet another opportunity to see what one of the club's brightest prospects could do.

He was a regular name in the squad around the winter months, but it came as a great surprise to everyone when he was handed his full Premiership debut away to Manchester United on Boxing Day.

He was later used sparingly thereafter, but did manage to score his first senior goal in English football when heading home an early winner in the FA Cup game at Oldham Athletic in January 2005.

The 2005-2006 season lead to speculation that the youngster would be loaned out to a Championship club to gain experience but no such much materialised and for the first part of the season he was an anonymus figure in the Bolton set-up.

A late goal in the UEFA Cup group stages against Portuguese side Vitoria Guimaeres reminded his manager that he was still around and the absence of El-Hadji Diouf through injury allowed him to make a bigger impact in the second half of the season

As the 2005-2006 season came to a close the speedy forward really came into his own as he scored three goals in the last four Premiership matches, including the winner on the final day against relegated Birmingham City.

However he was unable to build on these performances in the last campaign and after a large amount of appearances from the substitutes bench he went out on loan to Championship side Hull City.

BOLTON RECORD: 55 appearances, 3 goals

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