Artur Correia

Artur Manuel Soares Correia (18 April 1950 – 25 July 2016) was a Portuguese footballer who played as a right back.

Nicknamed "Ruço", he amassed Primeira Liga totals of 234 games and four goals during 12 seasons, representing Académica, Benfica and Sporting, winning eight major titles with the second club including five national championships. He also spent two years in the United States, with the New England Tea Men.

Correia was a Portugal international for seven years, making his debut in 1972.

Club career Born in Lisbon, Correia grew up in the Santa Cruz neighbourhood of Benfica with four siblings, two brothers and two sisters. He first started at C.F. Benfica, before joining the under-19 team of S.L. Benfica in 1965, his boyhood club from which he had been a registered member since birth.

In 1968, Correia moved to Coimbra to finish high-school and enrol into college, whilst at the same time competing for local Associação Académica also in the Primeira Liga. He only appeared in one game in his first season, but eventually asserted himself as a starter, gathering interest from C.F. Os Belenenses, FC Porto and Sporting Clube de Portugal. going on to help his team win the league with a ten-point advantage over second-placed Vitória F.C. and beat Porto and Sporting in the Taça de Portugal, as the campaign ended with a domestic double and a semi-final run in the European Cup.

During his six-year spell at the Estádio da Luz, Correia won five league titles, one Portuguese Cup and two Taça de Honra trophies. In the summer of 1977, during negotiations for a new contract, the management proposed him a pay cut, which he refused. Instead, Sporting president João Rocha offered him a better deal and the player traded clubs, as he explained: "I never thought of playing in Sporting, but it was the club that offered me the best deal. Benfica, basically, sent me away"; He earned the first of his 34 caps for the full side on 10 May 1972, in a 1–0 win in Cyprus for the 1974 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Correia represented his country in the Brazil Independence Cup, also in 1972. He was regularly called up until 1979, but failed to appear in any major competition. On 20 July of the following year, he suffered a second stroke that put him in a coma, and after five days in critical condition he died at the age of 66.

Honours Benfica Primeira Liga: 1971–72, 1972–73, 1974–75, 1975–76, 1976–77 Taça de Portugal: 1971–72 Taça de Honra: 1971–72, 1973–74

Sporting Primeira Liga: 1979–80 Taça de Portugal: 1977–78