Ricardo Alexandre Martins Soares Pereira OIH, known simply as Ricardo, is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
He spent most of his professional career with Boavista and Sporting, helping the former to its only Primeira Liga title and appearing with the latter in more than 150 official matches, winning one Portuguese Cup. In his 30s he moved abroad, representing mainly Betis.
Ricardo won 79 caps with Portugal, appearing with the nation at two World Cups and as many European Championships, notably reaching the final at Euro 2004.
In the 2006 World Cup group stage, Ricardo kept two clean sheets and was only beaten once, by Mexico's Francisco Fonseca, as the national side won all three matches. They once again knocked out England in the quarter-finals of a major tournament on penalties, as he saved from Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher in a 3–1 shootout win after a 0–0 draw with extra time, becoming the first keeper to save three times in a World Cup shootout; the country finished fourth, and he was named to the tournament All-Star team as one of the three best goalkeepers.
