Nuno Gomes

Background

Gomes made his senior debut at 19 in a 1996 friendly against France. He scored his first goal in Portugal's opening match at UEFA Euro 2000, marking his fourth start with the winner as the side came from two goals down to beat England 3–2. He finished the competition with four goals as the national team reached the final four, and was selected to the UEFA team of the tournament. In the eventual 2-1 semi-final defeat to France, Gomes opened the scoring but the French equalized and later converted an extra-time penalty to win; Gomes earned a seven-month international ban for pushing referee Günter Benkö over the penalty awarded for a handball.

With seven goals in only six matches, Gomes helped Portugal qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup – this included four in a 7–1 away demolition of Andorra. He would struggle to hold a starting place in the finals in South Korea and Japan, only appearing twice from the bench. On 19 November 2003 he scored his second hat-trick, in only 21 minutes of play against Kuwait. Things went better for Gomes at Euro 2004, where he played each game and, after coming on as a half-time substitute, scored the winning goal against Spain to send the hosts through to the quarter-finals.

He was often injured during the nation's 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign, only managing to play four times, with one goal; he found limited time at the final stages and only made two appearances, but managed to find the back of the net with a header against hosts Germany in the third-place playoff, a 3–1 defeat. After the retirement of Pauleta, Gomes was expected to become his successor in the striker role. He played ten matches and scored three times in the Euro 2008 qualifiers, captained Portugal at the finals and scored against Germany in the quarter-finals, thus becoming the fourth player to achieve the feat at three straight European Championships.

Following the appointment of Carlos Queiroz as coach, Gomes was constantly overlooked due to his lack of minutes at Benfica. During the 2010 World Cup qualification, he only took part in four out of 12 fixtures, all as a substitute, with Liédson and Hugo Almeida being preferred; he was one of the 50 preliminary players but was left out of the 23-men squad for the final stages in South Africa, this being the first time the player was left out of a major tournament.

On 7 October 2011, after more than two years out of international play, the 35-year-old Gomes replaced Hélder Postiga in the last minute of a 5–3 home victory over Iceland for the Euro 2012 qualifiers. Four days later, he played against Denmark in what was his last full appearance; due to little playing time for his club in 2011–12, he was left out of Paulo Bento's squad for the finals in Poland and Ukraine.

Did You Know?

• He scored four goals in the 1995 FIFA World Youth Championship, including two in the third-place match against Spain.
• Gomes earned a seven-month international ban for pushing referee Günter Benkö after a penalty decision in the Euro 2000 semi-final against France.
• Gomes was the fourth player to score at three straight European Championships, achieving this at Euro 2000, Euro 2004, and Euro 2008.