Ricardo Horta – Skills and Highlights

Ricardo Horta – Skills and Highlights

Ricardo Jorge Luz Horta (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʁiˈkaɾduˈɔɾtɐ]; born 15 September 1994) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a right winger for Primeira Liga club Braga and the Portugal national team.

He spent most of his career with Braga after coming through Benfica’s youth academy, playing over 275 games for the former and scoring a club record 93 goals while winning the 2020–21 Taça de Portugal and the 2019–20 Taça da Liga. In the Primeira Liga, he also represented Vitória de Setúbal, and spent two years with Málaga in La Liga.

Horta finished second with Portugal at the 2015 European Under-21 Championship, also being an international at various youth levels. He made his debut with the full side in 2014.

Braga
On 5 July 2016, Horta was loaned to Braga for one year. Roughly one year later he joined the club permanently, with Juan Carlos moving in the opposite direction. He scored 11 and eight goals in his second and third seasons respectively, helping to consecutive fourth-place finishes.

In September 2019, Horta added two more seasons to his contract to take him through to 2024, while increasing his buyout clause from €25 million to €30 million. The following 25 January, he scored the only goal in the last seconds of the final of the Taça da Liga against Porto. He set the club’s record for goals in European competition on 10 December in a 2–0 home win over Zorya Luhansk in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League, surpassing Paulinho; both players had recently moved past Alan in that chart.

Horta closed the 2–0 defeat of Benfica in the final of the Taça de Portugal on 23 May 2021, to claim the cup competition for the third time in club history. On 3 August, Braga announced the player had rejected the chance to join Major League Soccer side Atlanta United following a bid worth €15 million; his contract with the Minho Province team was extended to 2026 in October.

In 2021–22, Horta became captain after Fransérgio’s move to Bordeaux, and had his most prolific season with 19 goals, bettered in the division by only Darwin Núñez and Mehdi Taremi. On 25 April, he scored the only goal against Porto, preventing the visitors from taking the outright European record of 59 league games unbeaten. It was also the 100th of his professional career, and he took the Player of the Month and Forward of the Month award, with two teammates taking the equivalents for other positions as well as manager Carlos Carvalhal. On 15 May, he scored in the first minute of a 3–2 loss at neighbours Famalicão on the final day, thus moving ahead of 1940s player Mário Laranjo as Braga’s top scorer with 93.

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