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JOSE EDUARDO ROSA VALE E CASTRO 'ZE CASTRO'
Squad Number 08/09: ?
Date of Birth: 13 January 1983
Birthplace: Coimbra
Nationality: Portugal
Contract: 2008 - 2009
Transfer: Loaned for the season 2008/2009. Deportivo have an €2 million option to buy half of his rights at the end of the season.
Previous Clubs: Atlético de Madrid (2006-2008), Académica Coimbra (2003-2006)
Buy-out Clause: none
Height: 183 cm
Weight: ?
Position: Defender (central)
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 The summer of 2008 saw ZÉ CASTRO becoming the eighth player who made the switch from Atlético to Deportivo since the promotion of the Galicians in 1991. The Portuguese defender still his to show his permanent value in the Primera División after two seasons in which he didn’t always was successful in Madrid. Recently the player was wanted by clubs like Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Bayern Munich and Ajax Amsterdam and now he hopes to follow the footsteps of those other ex-Atlético players who became successful at Deportivo: Donato, Alfredo, Valerón, Molina, Capdevila and Arizmendi. And if he becomes such, Deportivo can buy half of his transfer rights to decide about his career.
Zé Castro started his professional career in the city where he was born: Coimbra, a city of 140,000 inhabitants and situated between Lisbon and Porto. The defender was part of Académica’s youth system and entered their first team in the year 2003. 20-year old Zé Castro only played one match during the season 2003/2004, but the year after he was a starting defender in their team playing 24 official matches in the highest Portuguese league. Two seasons after it, Zé Castro became captain of Académica Coimbra and he already had started to attract foreign interest. After having played another 30 league matches in the season 2005/2006, several important clubs were knocking on the door of the former U20 and U21 player as they knew that his contract was expiring. Firm offers were made by Celtic Glasgow, Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich but Zé Castro preferred to move to a country nearby and signed at Atlético de Madrid until June 2011 on a free transfer.
Ex-Atlético and Portugal star Paulo Futre praised his signing and predicted that Zé Castro would become a great player in Spain. And it seemed that his prediction was right when he entered their team on 4 November 2006 during the 0-0 away match at Real Mallorca. The week after he was a starting player against Villarreal (and scored a goal) and he played 16 full matches out of a possible 18 in the space of four months. Zé Castro was a solid choice in the centre of their defence together with either Colombian Perea or Spaniard Pablo Ibańez. Zé Castro for his part said to be very happy with his move to Spain and commented that Atlético was a bigger club than he thought. Meanwhile, interest of Chelsea in him appeared in the newspapers. Zé Castro scored his second goal of the season in the final phase of the match against Osasuna (1-0).
 But the Happy Days were more or less over after match day 24. Atlético just couldn’t make a step closer to the Champions League spots and now arch-rivals Real Madrid visited their stadium. Atlético only hade beaten the white team at the end of the season 1998/1999 and had to look back to the season 1991/1992 for their second recent victory against Spain’s biggest club. The four most recent matches against them even were lost all with the numbers being one goal for Atlético and twelve for the visitors. But this time Atlético completely outplayed their opponents and took an early lead through Fernando Torres. However, with only thirty minutes remaining it was precisely Zé Castro who had a weak effort at Higuaín and the Argentinean player tied the game. 1-1 was the final result, despite Real Madrid finishing the match with ten players. Another frustrating result had appeared and the supporters of Atlético never forgave him for that. He was constantly being booed and whistled at during the next matches and his performances dropped. Coach Aguirre took him off the team after Atlético suffered an important 1-0 defeat at rivals Zaragoza. Defender Eller surpassed him in Atlético’s ranking and only suspensions and injuries of others were the reason that he started four more matches in the remaining of the season. Eller and Zé Castro were Atlético’s central duo when the team were humiliated by FC Barcelona at the Vicente Calderón: 0-6.
The status of Zé Castro at the club had changed. Perea and Pablo Ibańez were Aguirre’s starting defenders for the season 2007/2008 and Eller was third on his list. Zé Castro only started six Liga matches and was taken off in two of them. With Zé Castro on the pitch that season, Atlético suffered 12 goals in 553 minutes (including an own goal of him against Sevilla) which is almost two goals per full match, something which does not represent the fact that Atlético finished fourth and for the first time since 1996 returned to the Champions League. During the winter months a move to Ajax Amsterdam (to succeed Jaap Stam) collapsed because he was injured. Later his situation at the club became quite clear when Atlético signed Euro 2008 defenders John Heitinga and Tomas Ujfalusi. Zé Castro noticed his situation and indicated his wish to leave the club.
Zé Castro was linked to Sporting Lisbon when early July rumours appeared about him going to Deportivo. The defender called Deportivo “a great club for a young player. They had, and still have, prestige and will play in Europe next season”. The loan deal with Atlético made Zé Castro the third signing for the new season after strikers Omar Bravo and Mista (another Atlético-reject). Deportivo achieved a €2 million buy-out clause at the end of the season 2008/2009 to own 50% of his transfer rights and to have him contracted until 2013. That would mean that Deportivo will have a full say about Zé Castro’s destination, but that the income of a future sale will have to be shared with Atlético. But the player himself didn’t want to think too much about next year. “The only important thing now is to train because I have been on vacation while Deportivo have already been training for a while. I have to work and to play a good season and not to think about next year”. Lotina called him “a player with very good control over the ball. We will work hard with him and if he has defects, we will polish them. But for now I like his signing”. Zé Castro was presented together with another new player: goalkeeper Aranzubia. Lendoiro finally had signed a player who he had been following for years, and that’s why he had acted so soon when left-footed Zé Castro’s status at Atlético got worse. Zé Castro made his official debut for Deportivo in the Intertoto match in Riazor against Bnei Sakhnin.
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