Careca

For other uses, see Careca (disambiguation).

In this Portuguese name, the second or paternal family name is de Oliveira. "Filho" is a generational suffix meaning "son", which is used for someone whose name is the same as their father, like "Jr." in English.

Antônio de Oliveira Filho (born 5 October 1960), better known as Careca (Portuguese pronunciation: [kaˈɾɛkɐ]), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward.

Careca

Careca in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Antônio de Oliveira Filho
Date of birth	(1960-10-05) 5 October 1960 (age 64)
Place of birth	Araraquara, Brazil
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1978–1982	Guarani	77	(46)
1983–1987	São Paulo	67	(54)
1987–1993	Napoli	164	(73)
1993–1996	Kashiwa Reysol	60	(31)
1997	Santos	9	(2)
1998	Campinas	10	(6)
1999	São José (RS)	2	(0)
Total		389	(212)
International career
1982–1993	Brazil	64	(30)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

During his career, Careca played for several clubs, most notably with Italian side Napoli. He was also capped over 60 times for the Brazil national team.

Club career

Careca began his footballing career in his home state of São Paulo with local side Guarani in 1978. With his finishing ability and devastating pace quickly established himself as one of his country's best young strikers. With Guarani, he won the Brazilian Championship during his first season and the Brazilian Second Division in 1981.

By 1983 he had been signed by São Paulo, he continued to gather notoriety because of his impressive goals to games ratio and by 1986, Careca led São Paulo to the Brazilian Championship, beating his former club Guarani in the final. He was awarded Bola de Ouro the same year, which is the Brazilian equivalent of Footballer of the Year.

Move to Napoli

In the summer of 1987 Careca moved to Italian Serie A champions Napoli, where he was part of the "Ma-Gi-Ca" forward lineup with Bruno Giordano and Diego Maradona.^[1] Careca's first season at Napoli was an unsuccessful one, despite his 13 goals: the team were knocked out in the first round of the European Cup by Real Madrid and they lost the title in the final games of the season.

However, his second season was far more successful. The team won the UEFA Cup, with Careca scoring a goal in each leg of the final, one a memorable lobbed goal, and finished second in Serie A, also reaching the Coppa Italia final that season. In 1990, Careca finally won the Scudetto with Napoli, following the success up with the first ever Supercoppa Italiana later that year. Careca spent a further three years with Napoli, establishing a partnership with Gianfranco Zola, during which Napoli failed to win any silverware.

Later stages of playing career

In 1993 Careca left Italy to play for new Japanese J.League team Kashiwa Reysol. Careca spent three years with the team, during which time he helped them to promotion to the J1 league in 1994. He returned to Brazil in 1997 with Santos, he spent a year with the club and another year with Cambinas (1998) before joining the lower-league team São José (RS), where he finished his career in 1999.

Careca retired having played 64 games for Brazil, and scored 30 goals.

Garforth Town owner and manager, Simon Clifford, persuaded Careca to play the majority of a friendly game against Guiseley in the summer of 2005.^[2]

Footballing name

The word careca is Portuguese for 'bald'. It was a nickname given to Careca as a child because of his admiration for a famous Brazilian clown of the same name.

Other Carecas

Two contemporaries of Careca, who like him played for the Brazil national football team, were also called Careca and are thus sometimes confused with him: Careca II and Careca Bianchezi.

International career

Careca first broke into the national side of Brazil during 1982, but was forced to miss the 1982 World Cup in Spain due to a thigh injury suffered in practice three days before Brazil's debut in that tournament. His place in the squad for that tournament was taken by Roberto Dinamite. He was also part of the Brazilian squad that came in second in the 1983 Copa América.

It was during the 1986 World Cup, in Mexico, that Careca really established himself in world football. He ended the tournament, during which Brazil were memorably eliminated on penalties by France at the quarter-final stage, with five goals which placed him second in the Golden Boot rankings behind England's Gary Lineker. In 1990, Careca was part of the Brazilian team that was defeated by Argentina in the second round. He scored two goals in the tournament. His last cap was earned in August 1993.

Style of play

Careca is regarded as one of the greatest strikers in the history of Brazilian football.^[3] He was a prolific, fast, opportunistic, and powerful striker, with excellent technique and great striking ability. Despite being right-footed, he was also capable of scoring with his left foot, and he was known for his ability to score goals off-balance from angled shots even when running with the ball. Careca was also good in the air, and he had an excellent positional sense, which along with his intelligence, sense of space, and attacking movement, made him known for frequently being in the right position at the right time in the penalty area. Although he was usually deployed as a striker, he was also capable of playing in deeper positions, as a creative forward, due to his ability to play off of his teammates and provide them with assists, as well as his tendency to make attacking runs starting from outside the area in order to create space for other players.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} After scoring a goal, Careca often celebrated by mimicking an aeroplane's wings with his arms outstretched.^[9]

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			State league		Cup		Continental		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Guarani	1978[10]	Série A	28	13	21	12			—		49	25
	1979[10][11]		1	0	49	16			7[a]	0	57	16
	1980[10]		17	7	38	16			—		55	23
	1981[10]		14	8	34	13			—		48	21
	1982[10]		17	18	28	11			—		45	29
	Total		77	46	170	68			7	0	254	114
São Paulo	1983[10]	Série A	20	17	33	15			—		53	32
	1984[10]				37	14			—		37	14
	1985[10]		17	12	31	23			—		48	35
	1986[10]		30	25	13	7			—		43	32
	1987[10][11]								2[a]	1	2	1
	Total		67	54	114	59			2	1	183	114
Napoli	1987–88[10][11]	Serie A	26	13	—		7	5	1[b]	0	34	18
	1988–89[10][11]		30	19	—		10	2	12[b]	6	52	27
	1989–90[10][11]		22	10	—		1	0	6[b]	2	29	12
	1990–91[10][11]		29	9	—		7[c]	3	2[b]	0	38	12
	1991–92[10][11]		33	15	—		4	2	—		37	17
	1992–93[10][11]		24	7	—		3	3	—		27	10
	Total		164	73	—		32	15	21	8	217	96
Kashiwa Reysol	1993[10]	Football League			—		6	4	—		6	4
	1994[10]		25	19	—		1	1	—		26	20
	1995[10][11]	J1 League	30	10	—				—		30	10
	1996[10][11]		5	2	—		6	3	—		11	5
	Total		60	31	—		13	8	—		73	39
Santos	1997[10]	Série A
Career total			368	204	284	127	45	23	30	9	727	363

1. Appearances in Copa Libertadores
2. Appearances in European Cup
3. Appearance in Supercoppa Italiana

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year^[10]

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Brazil	1982	4	0
	1983	11	5
	1984	0	0
	1985	7	3
	1986	11	8
	1987	4	2
	1988	0	0
	1989	6	6
	1990	7	3
	1991	1	0
	1992	2	0
	1993	7	2
Total		60	29

Scores and results list Brazil's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Careca goal.

List of international goals scored by Careca

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Ref.
1	28 April 1983	Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Chile	–	3–2	Friendly	[12]
2	8 June 1983	Estádio Cidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal	Portugal	1–0	4–0	Friendly	[13]
3				3–0
4	17 June 1983	St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland	Switzerland	2–1	2–1	Friendly	[14]
5	22 June 1983	Ullevi, Gothenburg, Sweden	Sweden	2–2	3–3	Friendly	[15]
6	2 May 1985	Estádio do Arruda, Recife, Brazil	Uruguay	–	2–0	Friendly	[16]
7	5 May 1985	Estádio Fonte Nova, Salvador, Brazil	Argentina	1–0	2–1	Friendly	[17]
8	30 June 1985	Estádio do Morumbi, São Paulo, Brazil	Bolivia	–	1–1	1986 FIFA World Cup qualification	[18]
9	1 April 1986	Castelão, São Luís, Brazil	Peru	4–0	4–0	Friendly	[19]
10	8 April 1986	Estádio Serra Dourada, Goiânia, Brazil	East Germany	3–0	3–0	Friendly	[20]
11	30 April 1986	Estádio do Arruda, Recife, Brazil	Yugoslavia	4–2	4–2	Friendly	[21]
12	6 June 1986	Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico	Algeria	1–0	1–0	1986 FIFA World Cup	[22]
13	12 June 1986	Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico	Northern Ireland	1–0	3–0	1986 FIFA World Cup	[23]
14				3–0
15	16 June 1986	Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico	Poland	4–0	4–0	1986 FIFA World Cup	[24]
16	21 June 1986	Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico	France	1–0	1–1	1986 FIFA World Cup	[25]
17	21 June 1987	Estádio da Ressacada, Florianópolis, Brazil	Ecuador	–	4–1	Friendly	[26]
18	28 June 1987	Estadio Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina	Venezuela	3–0	5–0	1987 Copa América	[27]
19	20 August 1989	Estádio do Morumbi, São Paulo, Brazil	Venezuela	1–0	6–0	1990 FIFA World Cup qualification	[28]
20				2–0
21				5–0
22				6–0
23	3 September 1989	Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Chile	–	2–0	1990 FIFA World Cup qualification	[29]
24	20 December 1989	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Netherlands	1–0	1–0	Friendly	[30]
25	13 May 1990	Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	East Germany	2–1	3–3	Friendly	[31]
26	10 June 1990	Juventus Stadium, Turin, Italy	Sweden	1–0	2–1	1990 FIFA World Cup	[32]
27				2–0
28	6 June 1993	Yale Bowl, New Haven, United States	United States	1–0	2–0	1993 U.S. Cup	[33]
29	10 June 1993	Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, Washington, United States	Germany	2–0	3–3	1993 U.S. Cup	[34]

Honours

Guarani

• Campeonato Brasileiro Série A: 1978

São Paulo

• Campeonato Brasileiro Série A: 1986
• Campeonato Paulista: 1985, 1987

Napoli^[35]

• Serie A: 1989–90
• Supercoppa Italiana: 1990
• UEFA Cup: 1988–89

Individual

• Bola de Prata: 1982, 1985, 1986
• Campeonato Paulista top scorer: 1985
• Bola de Ouro: 1986
• Campeonato Brasileiro Série A top scorer: 1986
• FIFA World Cup Silver Boot: 1986
• South American Team of the Year: 1986^[36]