World Cup South Africa 2010
History - Groups - Players - Venues
Favorite Players by Country (Germany 2006)
Group D - Angola:
Pedro Mantorras -(Pedro Manuel Torres)
Place of Birth: Luanda, Angola
Date of Birth: March 18th, 1982
Position: Striker
Clubs: Alverca FC, SL Benfica (Lisbon)
Mantorras as he is better known currently plays for Benfica from Lisbon. Although, some people has compared him to Eusebio he has his own unique qualities.
His undoubted talent was recognized by Alverca FC, club which signed him in 1999. After scoring eight goals in 28 appearances Mantorras decided to join SL Benfica in 2001. A knee injury has sidelined the striker for the past two years. He scored nine goals in his first season before his first knee operation in early 2002. Another operation in February 2004 seemed to have solved the problem, but the injury persisted.
In the last two seasons, he has only played three times for his country's national side and is only now set to begin his return to the pitch after years of rehabilitation.
Then in 2004/05 season he was back on the court to score five goals, no doubt a happy return to action; he became influential to the title win after scoring winners in the dying seconds of the matches against GD Estoril-Praia and CS Maritimo and the leveler against UD Leiria.
His extravagant skill, mobility, strength and dead-eye finishing make him a nightmare to neutralize. Mantorras has already been described as the best player to come out of Portuguese Africa since Eusébio left Mozambique for Benfica in the early 1960s.
Success-starved Benfica fans would not find such comparisons too fanciful. They fell in love with Mantorras as soon as they saw him turn on the style in pre-season. After playing a prominent role in his country, the African Under-20 Championship triumph in Ethiopia in March 2001 - he was the tournament’s top marksman with five goals - his next job will be to make the senior side more competitive.
He is one of the best players in the Angolan National Team and his efforts and qualities were the drive that made Angola the first African-Portuguese speaking country to qualify for the World Cup in 2006.
|