Pepe, His History, His Achievements

Born in Brazil. I'll say that again, Pepe was born in Brazil. He is a Brazilian by birth. At the age of 18, he left his native Portugal and moved to Portugal, where he signed a contract with the club Martimo and started playing for their B team. He was initially a defensive midfielder but then he became a center back and made his place in the A team in 2002-03. Pepe continues to rise with his qualifications. Martimo qualified for the UEFA Cup in the 2004–05 season for his continued success. He was able to score a goal in 30 matches for Martimo. In the summer transfer window of 2004, Pepe signed with Portuguese club Porto for 1 million euros. In his first season as Porto, he was primarily used as their substitute. With his help Porto was able to win the Portuguese Cup twice in a row in later seasons. Real Madrid signed him to a five-year deal on 30 July 2007 for 30 million for his outstanding performances for Porto. He was criticized multiple times for his behavior while playing for Real. After playing in this club for 10 years, he said goodbye to Real in 2017.

For Real Madrid, Pepe was able to win a few more titles, including three La Liga titles and three Champions Leagues titles. Pepe's international career was supposed to be for Brazil. But he did not play for Brazil. After leaving Brazil at the age of 18, according to what Pepe's father had claimed, former Brazil coach Dunga approached Pepe in 2006 to bring him to the team. However, Pep rejected it back then. Pepe declared that he wanted to be able to play for the Portuguese national team if he got Portuguese citizenship. Pepe's wish came true in August 2007. He was granted Portuguese citizenship and was called up to the Portuguese national team in the same month. Pepe played his first match for Portugal on 21 November 2007 against Finland. Pepe has scored seven goals in 119 appearances for Portugal.

Pepe is currently playing for his former club in his second home country, Porto. Pepe's trophy cabinet is actually quite full to the brink. He has won the Euro championship and the UEFA nations league with Portugal. Winning best footballer of the year in 2014 and the best defender of the year in 2016. While dor Real Madrid he has three champions league titles. Two of them are from the historic three peat and the other the La Decima. He picked up two club world cup titles along the way. He won the La Liga with Real Madrid on three occasions. One of which being the historic Real Madrid squad of Jose Mourinho, which dethroned Pep Guardiola's Barcelona. He has two a piece of the UEFA super cups and the spanish domestic cups. And three spanish super cup titles in that 10 year tenure. Before all this happened he played for Porto, where also he won titles. Three times Portuguese premier league winner and Portuguese super cup winner, a piece. Followed by two more titles of the Portuguese domestic cup. He also the Toyota cup in 2004. He has been voted the best defender of the year in Porto for the 2020-21 season.

The hot headed legend celebrated his birthday today.