Luís Boa Morte

Luís Boa Morte
Fulham info
Full name	Luís Boa Morte Pereira
Nickname(s)	Boa Constrictor, Dead Snake
Date of birth	4 Aug 1977
Place of birth	Lisbon, Portugal
Height	5ft 10in (1.78m)
Playing position	Left winger, Central midfieder, Forward
Current player?
Number(s) worn	22 (2000-2002) 11 (2002-2007)
Debut	Crewe (h) (12 Aug 2000)
Last Appearance	Watford (h) (1 Jan 2007)
First goal	Stockport (h) (26 Aug 2000)
Last goal	Charlton (h) (15 April 2006)
Joined from	Southampton, loan - 30 Jun 2000 Southampton, £1.7 million - 14 Jun 2001
Left for	West Ham, £5 million - 5 Jan 2007
League apps (gls)	205 (44)
All apps (gls)	250 (54)
Other clubs	Sporting Lisbon (1994-1997) → Lourinhanense (loan) (1996-1997) Arsenal (1997-1999) Southampton (1999-2001) West Ham United (2007-2011) AEL (2011-2012) Orlando Pirates (2012) Chesterfield (2012-2013)
International	Portugal (2001-2009)
Apps (gls)	28 (1)

Luís Boa Morte was a midfielder & forward for Fulham from 2000 until 2007, and is currently first team coach. He was usually used in a wider role on the left side, and occasionally as a support striker. Initially signed on a season-long loan from Southampton, he enjoyed a fantastic season in 2000-01 helping Fulham get promoted to the Premier League. Following a reported plea from Boa Morte to then manager Jean Tigana to get signed permanently, Fulham had a £2 million offer accepted by Southampton with proceeds going to former club Arsenal, with Boa Morte joining the club shortly after. He enjoyed his successful years at Craven Cottage, but never quite reached the same level whilst playing for West Ham United.

Career

Before Fulham

Boa Morte started out at Portuguese outfit Sporting Lisbon at the age of 16 in 1994 after being scouted playing for his local team, and signed professional terms with them at the beginning of the 1996-97 season at the age of 18. He was then sent out on loan to feeder club Lourinhanense for the season.

His big break, however, came when he caught the eye of Premier League giants Arsenal who signed him on 14 June 1997 for £1.75 million, making him one of Arsène Wenger's first signings for the club. Having made sporadic appearances for Arsenal, usually as a substitute, it soon became clear that Boa Morte was not a long-term first team player, and 2 years later in 1999, he was sold to Southampton for the rather small fee of just £500,000 plus incentives.

Whilst starting the 1999-00 season in Southampton's first team, when manager Dave Jones got replaced by Glenn Hoddle, he found appearances hard to come by, and during the second half of the season only played for them on three occasions.

Fulham (2000-2007)

In July 2000, the out-of-favour Boa Morte was signed on a season-long loan to Fulham, considered a great capture alongside new signings Louis Saha and Scottish international John Collins. This was to be one of Fulham's most successful seasons in their history, with Boa Morte playing a massive contribution to their promotion back to the top flight, with 39 appearances and 8 goals for the cottagers.

As soon as the season was over and therefore the loan, it was reported that Boa Morte was pleaing to manager Jean Tigana to sign him up on a permanent deal after his successful and enjoyable time at Fulham. Eventually he was signed for a deal of around £2 million in June 2001, with former club Arsenal getting payed incentives due to a clause in the contract. His return to playing in the Premier League was certainly not as comfortable as his previous season playing in the First Division as he only managed 1 league goal, however he was an important player in the team and was certainly a fan favourite.

The 2002-03 season, in which Fulham had qualified for the UEFA Cup, was where Boa Morte shone once more as he enjoyed a relatively successful cup run; of note was his 90th minute winner in the 2-1 victory over Dinamo Zagreb in the second leg, having also scored in the first leg.

In the following season, his goalscoring form return as he bagged a total of 10 goals in all competitions for Fulham, and this is generally where he bagan to find his feet in the Premier League. This step up in form from Boa Morte is what brought him many more international caps for Portugal, and he was also rewarded at the end of the 2004-05 season with Fulham's Player of the Season award. By this time he had gained the nickname Dead Snake, as a joking mistranslation of his surname.

Following 2004-05, he was a transfer target of Newcastle United but he pledged his future to Fulham, signing a two-year extension on his contract which already had three years left on it, meaning he was signed until the summer of 2010. He was then shortly after made team captain for the 2005-06 season, where he arguably made his Fulham crowning moment in scoring the solitary goal in a rare 1-0 victory over rivals Chelsea in the west London derby.

It was half-way through the 2006-07 season that Boa Morte moved to fellow Londoners West Ham United, for a fee thought to be around £5 million on 5 January 2007.

After Fulham

Boa Morte played for West Ham for four and a half years, however he failed to reach the form and success that he achieved at Fulham; this is generally believed that it was due to him being played out of his position played at Fulham and therefore playing a different role for them. He was a mainstay though, and made nearly 100 league appearances for the Hammers. It was whilst playing with West Ham in the build up to the 2009-10 season that he suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury, which kept him out for nearly the entire season.

Halfway through a two-year deal with West Ham, Boa Morte and the club had his contract mutually terminated, and in August 2011 he moved onto Greek club Larissa where he signed a two-year deal with them. Originally signed by the club to help them return to top flight football, he had to leave just six months into his stay due to financial problems that Larissa had.

Another short spell at Orlando Pirates in South Africa and an unsuccessful trial for Toronto in Canada followed.

It was reported in September 2012 that he had been training with Fulham's U21 squad and first team for two weeks in a bid to return to match fitness. The following month, he signed for Chesterfield on a short-term contract and played 12 league matches before departing in January 2013. During pre-season in 2013, Luis returned to Motspur Park to train once again with the Under-21 squad and to complete his coaching badges. During this time, he came on as a substitute in a pre-season friendly against Sutton United, and travelled with the U21's on their pre-season tour to Portugal, becoming a coach for the U21 squad for the season.

In July 2021, he returned to Fulham as first team coach when Marco Silva was appointed as the head coach. After three successful seasons alongside Silva, he left the club in the summer of 2024 after accepting an offer to become head coach of the Guinea-Bissau national team.

Statistics

Appearances

Season	League	League		FA Cup		League Cup		Intertoto Cup		UEFA Cup		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
2000-01	First Division	39	18	1	0	6	3	-	-	-	-	46	21
2001-02	Premier League	23	1	3	0	3	1	-	-	-	-	29	2
2002-03	Premier League	29	2	2	0	1	1	8	0	5	2	45	5
2003-04	Premier League	33	9	5	1	1	0	-	-	-	-	39	10
2004-05	Premier League	31	8	5	1	3	0	-	-	-	-	39	9
2005-06	Premier League	35	6	1	0	1	1	-	-	-	-	37	7
2006-07	Premier League	15	0	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	15	0
	Total	205	44	17	2	15	6	8	0	5	2	250	54

Disciplinary

Season
2000-01	15	1
2001-02	7	2
2002-03	11	0
2003-04	9	1
2004-05	7	0
2005-06	10	1
2006-07	2	0
Total	61	5

Fulham Matches

#	Season	Date	Comp	Opposition	Venue	Result	Score	Additional Information
1	2000-01	12 Aug 2000	DIV1	Crewe	Home	Won	2-0	58'
2	2000-01	18 Aug 2000	DIV1	Birmingham	Away	Won	3-1	65', 88'
3	2000-01	22 Aug 2000	LC	Northampton	Away	Lost	0-1	55'
4	2000-01	26 Aug 2000	DIV1	Stockport	Home	Won	4-1	77',  87'
5	2000-01	28 Aug 2000	DIV1	Norwich	Away	Won	1-0	62',  88'
6	2000-01	5 Sept 2000	LC	Northampton	Home	Won	4-1
7	2000-01	10 Sept 2000	DIV1	Barnsley	Home	Won	5-1	64',  90'
8	2000-01	12 Sept 2000	DIV1	Burnley	Home	Won	3-1	74'
9	2000-01	16 Sept 2000	DIV1	Nottingham Forest	Away	Won	3-0	71'
10	2000-01	19 Sept 2000	LC	Chesterfield	Away	Lost	0-1
11	2000-01	23 Sept 2000	DIV1	Gillingham	Home	Won	3-0	63'
12	2000-01	26 Sept 2000	LC	Chesterfield	Home	Won	4-0	90'
13	2000-01	30 Sept 2000	DIV1	Bolton	Away	Won	2-0	1', 77',  85'
14	2000-01	15 Oct 2000	DIV1	Blackburn	Home	Won	2-1	54'
15	2000-01	18 Oct 2000	DIV1	Crystal Palace	Home	Won	3-1	55'
16	2000-01	21 Oct 2000	DIV1	Wolves	Away	Drew	0-0	59', 74'
17	2000-01	24 Oct 2000	DIV1	Preston	Home	Lost	0-1	72'
18	2000-01	28 Oct 2000	DIV1	Sheff Wed	Away	Drew	3-3	77'
19	2000-01	1 Nov 2000	LC	Wolves	Home	Won	3-2	67',  83', 90'
20	2000-01	11 Nov 2000	DIV1	Wimbledon	Away	Won	3-0	67'
21	2000-01	18 Nov 2000	DIV1	Portsmouth	Home	Won	3-1	58'
22	2000-01	21 Nov 2000	DIV1	Sheff Utd	Away	Drew	1-1	61'
23	2000-01	25 Nov 2000	DIV1	Grimsby	Home	Won	2-1	60'
24	2000-01	2 Dec 2000	DIV1	Preston	Away	Drew	1-1	64', 67'
25	2000-01	9 Dec 2000	DIV1	West Brom	Away	Won	3-1	75'
26	2000-01	13 Dec 2000	LC	Liverpool	Away	Lost	0-3	91', 96'
27	2000-01	16 Dec 2000	DIV1	Tranmere	Home	Won	3-1	27',  49'
28	2000-01	23 Dec 2000	DIV1	Crewe	Away	Won	2-1	46'
29	2000-01	26 Dec 2000	DIV1	Watford	Home	Won	5-0	72'
30	2000-01	1 Jan 2001	DIV1	Stockport	Away	Lost	0-2	43', 80'
31	2000-01	7 Jan 2001	FAC	Man Utd	Home	Lost	1-2	63', 71'

Editing in progress

External links and references

2000-01 squad

1. Taylor 2. Finnan 3. Brevett 4. Melville 5. Coleman 6. Symons 7. Trollope 8. Clark 9. Sahnoun 10. J Collins 11. Hayward / Møller 12. Hahnemann 13. Riedle 14. Morgan 15. Hayles 16. Neilson 17. W Collins 18. McAnespie 19. Goldbæk 20. Saha 21. Peschisolido 22. Boa Morte 23. Davis 24. Goma 25. Fernandes 26. Betsy 27. Knight 28. Cornwall 29. Phelan 30. Thompson 31. Lewis 32. Keevill 33. Willock 34. Hammond 35. McCracken 36. Hudson 40. Štolcers Manager  Jean Tigana

2002-03 squad

1. van der Sar 2. Finnan 3. Brevett 4. Melville 5. Coleman 6. Inamoto 7. Marlet 8. Clark 9. Sava 10. Collins 11. Boa Morte 12. Taylor 13. Flitney 14. Malbranque 15. Hayles 16. Knight 17. Djetou 18. Legwinski 19. Goldbæk 20. Saha 21. Herrera 23. Davis 24. Goma 25. Ouaddou 26. Harley 27. Womé 30. Thompson 31. Lewis 33. Willock 34. Hammond 35. McAnespie 36. Hudson 38. Cornwall 39. Leacock 40. Štolcers Manager  Jean Tigana /  Chris Coleman

2003-04 squad

1. van der Sar 2. Volz 3. Harley 4. Melville 5. Legwinski 6. Inamoto 7. Marlet / Pembridge 8. Saha / McBride 9. Sava 10. Clark 11. Boa Morte 12. Crossley 13. Flitney 14. Malbranque 15. Hayles 16. Knight 17. Djetou 18. Bonnissel 19. Hammond 20. Hudson 21. Beasant 22. Leacock 23. S Davis 24. Goma 25. Buari 26. Willock / Petta 27. Štolcers 28. Rehman 29. Doherty 30. Green 31. Pratley 32. T Davis 33. Noble 34. Bocanegra 35. Pearce 36. John 37. Rosenior Manager  Chris Coleman

2004-05 squad

1. van der Sar 2. Volz 3. Bocanegra 4. Malbranque 5. Legwinski 6. Knight 7. Pembridge 8. McBride 9. Cole 10. Clark 11. Boa Morte 12. Crossley 13. Flitney 14. Diop 15. John 16. Batista 17. Radzinski 18. Bonnissel 19. Hammond 20. Jensen 21. Rehman 22. Leacock 23. Timlin 24. Goma 25. Buari 26. Sava 28. Fontaine 29. Doherty 30. Green 31. Pratley 33. Noble 34. McDermott 35. Pearce 36. McKinlay 37. Rosenior 38. Watkins 39. Ehui Manager  Chris Coleman

2005-06 squad

1. Crossley 2. Volz 3. Bocanegra 4. Malbranque 5. Legwinski 6. Knight 7. Pembridge 8. C Jensen 9. Brown 10. Helguson 11. Boa Morte 13. Radzinski 14. Diop 15. John 16. Batista 17. Rosenior 18. Elrich 19. Hammond / Christanval 20. McBride 21. Rehman 22. Leacock 23. Timlin 24. Goma 25. Drobný 26. Green 27. Elliott 28. Fontaine 29. Niemi 30. Warner 31. Pratley / Bridge 32. Collins 33. N Jensen 34. McDermott 35. Pearce 36. Milsom Manager  Chris Coleman

2006-07 squad

1. Crossley 2. Volz 3. Bocanegra 4. Queudrue 5. Christanval 6. Knight 7. Rosenior 8. Brown 9. Helguson 10. Runström 11. Boa Morte / Montella 12. Laštůvka 13. Radzinski 14. Diop 15. John 16. C Jensen 17. Elliott 18. Zakuani 19. Pearce 20. McBride 21. Bullard 22. Routledge 23. Timlin / Dempsey 24. Pembridge 25. N Jensen / Davies 26. Collins 27. Elrich 28. Milsom 29. Niemi 30. Warner 31. Batista 32. Drobný / Omozusi 36. Briggs 37. Smertin Manager  Chris Coleman /  Lawrie Sanchez