Mário Jardel

Mário Jardel de Almeida Ribeiro (born 18 September 1973) is a Brazilian professional footballer.

Jardel was most noted for his positioning on the field and "being at the right place, at the right time". With this exceptional positioning ability, Jardel was able to become one of Europe's most prolific strikers during his time at FC Porto, Galatasaray, and Sporting CP.

Club career

Brazil

Jardel played first for Vasco da Gama, but moved in 1995 to Grêmio, where he won the 1995 Copa Libertadores.

Porto

In 1996, he was linked to several teams, and after failing to transfer to Benfica and Rangers (due to the strict British rules involving non-EU players), he signed with Portuguese side FC Porto, where with help from players such as Zlatko Zahovič, Sérgio Conceição, and Ljubinko Drulović, he was the top goalscorer in Europe for three years (1998–99, 1999–00, 2001–02), with a goal average of slightly over one goal per match (130 goals in 125 games, avg: 1.04). Although he was top scorer three times, due to the use of coefficients based on each European league's standards, he only won twice, the 1998–99 and 2001–02 European Golden Boots. He lost out to Kevin Phillips in 1999–00 despite Phillips having scored six fewer goals than Jardel.

Porto Statistics:

Galatasaray

Jardel's future seemed bright enough. Before the 2000–01 season he was traded to the Turkish club Galatasaray, winners of UEFA Cup in 2000. The club activated the release clause of...
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