Who remembers his 19 minute appearance in 1999
When Marco Almeida arrrived from Sporting Lisbon on a years loan with the option of a permanent transfer in the summer of 1999 it was heralded as a great signing of a Sporting Lisbon player who was a current Portugese U21 international and it was expected he would play a reasonable part in the coming season, indeed with Ken Monkou gone and question marks over Claus Lundekvam's form, it looked a straight fight for the two central defensive spots between Claus, and the two new arrivals of Dean Richards & Almeida. In pre season he looked impressive and reports were favourable, a permanent looked a formality
Initially the Lundekvam/ Richards pairing was used and after a reasonable start to the season Arsenal rolled up to the Dell, it was 0-0 and late in the game when Almeida entered the fray and virtually his first contribution saw the Gunners hit the only goal of the game on 79 minutes, in fairness he was picking up Thierry henry, who sensing that Almeida might be a bit raw and wasnt marking him as closely as he was used to, used the space to turn his man and fire home a cracking goal, in fairness to our debutant he had given Henry too much time to turn and shoot, but it was hard on him that from well outside the area henry should be so lethal.
In truth Almeida looked a cultured defender and most though that this would not be the last we would see of him, but it was. astoundingly he wasnt the only man to play his last game for the club in this season he was joined by no less than 9 others ranging from youngsters like Shayne Bradley & Dani Rodrigues to big signings like John Beresford to established players like Egil Ostenstad.
Although Almeida would make a few reserve team appearances something seemed to have changed and i dont mean his appalling mullet haircut, so much so that be December the loan was cancelled and he returned to Portugal, then started a career in minor European leagues.
He did have a trial at Bolton after being released by Sporrting in the summer of 2000, but it was to a club he had played for before on loan that he ended up Campomaiorense, from then on it was mostly clubs in the second tier of either Portugal or a season in Spain or Portugal, his best spell coming at Alverca whom he helped to promotion from the Portugese second tier.
Dave Jones who had signed him for Saints hadnt forgotten him though and in 2007 he took the now 30 year old Almeida on trial at Cardiff in 2007 although he didnt follow this up by signing him.
In 2009 Almeida headed for Cyprus and Akritas Chlorakas where he was still playing at the end of last season.