PLAYER PROFILE

Renato Paulo Ferreira

Position: Defence

Height: 5'11

Weight: 12st 0lbs

Date of Birth: 1979-01-18 Cascais, Portugal

Renato Paulo Ferreira

Despite Paulo Ferreira's disappointing Euro 2004 which saw him only making two brief appearances for his country, manager Jose Mourinho still payed £13.2 million for his ex-Porto compatriot at the start of the season.

At Porto, he was voted the best right-back in Europe by his peers in the 2003/04 season and helped his side to glories in the Portugese league, the domestic cup, the UEFA Cup and, memorably, the Champions League - both his and Mourinho's final game for the club.

Since coming to Stamford Bridge, Ferreira has barely been off the Chelsea team sheet, raking up 42 appearances for his new side.

His prescence in the Chelsea team has helped form a virtually inpenetrable defence which leaked only fifteen goals in the league last season - a Barclays Premiership record.

His successful debut season, however, was cut short by a broken foot suffered in an international friendly against Slovakia in March 2005.

In 2005/06, he re-established himself as Chelsea's first-choice right-back at the expense of the marginalised Glen Johnson. He scored his first goal for the club in their FA Cup win over Colchester, though none of this was enough to earn him his place back in the Portugal team for the World Cup. He played three times in the tournament, starting only the third-place play-off.

The 2006/07 season was an impressive one for Ferreira as he played over 30 games, but after the departure of Jose Mourinho and the arrivals of full backs Jose Bosingwa and Juliano Belletti, Ferreira fell out of favour slightly. He remains a useful utility man for the Blues, however.