Henrique Hilario

Henrique Hilario Meireles Alves Sampaio is a Portuguese football player who currently features for the English and European giants Chelsea. Hilario is a goalkeeper.

Hilario got his big break in 1996 when he was signed by Portuguese giants FC Porto in 1996 but he failed to impress and was loaned out to smaller clubs. In 2003 he was signed by Nacional and there he developed as a goalkeeper and played for them for three seasons and played 56 league matches for the club.

Chelsea signed Hilario in the summer of 2006 as a third-choice custodian behind Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini and was handed his first team debut on October 18 2006 against Barcelona at Stamford Bridge in the UEFA Champions League after both Cech and Cudicini were injured.

He went onto make 17 more league appearances in the 2006-2007 season but in the 2007-2008 season he was again relegated to the bench and made a handful of appearances. Hilario has since struggled to play regularly for the Blues first team.

Hilario made his international debut for Portugal against China on March 3, 2010 in a friendly international. That has been his only game for his country so far.