Player profile

Tiago was ineligible for Atletico Madrid’s Europa League success last season and suffered heartbreak as they lost in the Copa del Rey final, meaning he missed out on adding some Spanish silverware to the trophies he has already won in the Portuguese, English and French top flights.

As a teenager, he excelled for Braga and swiftly moved to Lisbon giants Benfica. After 13 goals from midfield he caught the attention of Jose Mourinho and he won the Premier League title and the Carling Cup in his first season at Stamford Bridge.

The success of that season was soon tempered by the arrival of Michael Essien and his first-team chances were limited to the extent that he was sold, ironically to Essien’s former club, Lyon.

The trophies flowed in a two-year spell in France and his displays saw him switch sides again, this time to Juventus in June 2007.

His move to the Old Lady was far from as fruitful and the nadir came when he allegedly locked president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli in a toilet in protest at the club’s attempts to force him to go on loan to Everton and his continued exclusion from the first team. Team-mate Alessandro Del Piero finally unlocked Gigli.

He barely played in a two-and-a-half-year stint before escaping to Atletico Madrid on loan in January, where he was reunited with Portugal and former Benfica team-mate, Simao.

His intermittent displays for Juventus had affected his appearances for Portugal in recent years and he was overlooked for Euro 2008. He has gradually forced his way back into the team and he played in both legs of the play-off with Bosnia- Herzegovina.

Remarkably, he has only scored once for the international side going into this World Cup.