Daniel Fernandes-The New Goalkeeper Of Panathinaikos

Daniel Márcio Fernandes(born September 25,1983 in Edmonton,Alberta)is a Portuguese-Canadian footballer.He currently plays for Panathinaikos F.C. Fernandes started playing as a goalkeeper for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC. In 2000 he moved to Portugal and signed for Porto on a professional contract. He left for Celta Vigo in 2002 and was then loaned to then-Regionalliga side Jahn Regensburg.He was confined to the second-team roster in both Celta Vigo and Regensburg.Upon Regensburg's promotion,he returned from his loan spell,and was released by Celta on a free transfer.He was then picked up on trial basis from Greek club PAOK.Then-coach Angelos Anastasiadis recognized his talent and he signed his first contract with PAOK.In 2005, PAOK's General Manager and veteran player,Giorgos Kostikos,took over the club's fortunes,after coach Nikos Karageorgiou was sacked following a bad string of results.He immediately replaced aging keeper Kyriakos Tochouroglou in his starting XI with Fernandes.Many people were surprised by this choice,yet it was probably his best decision in his rather short-term career as a coach.Fernandes is mainly to thank for salvaging an otherwise disappointing 2005-2006 season,when he played in almost all games,in the Greek League and Cup alike.His vital saves,stability and steadfastness were praised both by players and by the media.Despite many problems,both inside and outside the pitch,PAOK managed to secure the 6th place in the league table and qualify for the 2006-07 UEFA Cup first round.The club also made reasonably good appearances in the 2005--06 UEFA Cup group stage.These performances led Fernades to the Portugal National team.He was second keeper for the club for the 2008 Euro qualifiers.On May 23,2008 PAOK accepted an offer from VfL Bochum to sign Fernandes for a fee of approximately €1.2 million.This was Bochum's third consecutive offer,to which both the club and Fernandes agreed on May 24.Following Marcin Mięciel,this makes Fernandes the second player to leave PAOK for Bochum,and the fourth from the Greek League overall,following Theofanis Gekas and Joël Epalle. On January 18,2010 Fernandes was loaned to Iraklis Thessaloniki F.C. until the end of the season.Daniel Fernandes had capped for Canada at U20 level. He then changed to play for the country of his father,Portugal,and made his U21 debut in 2006.Fernandes received his first senior call-up in November 2006,as 3rd goalkeeper behind Ricardo and Quim.He received call-up in March 2007 but played as unused bench.In May 2007 he received another call-up for Euro 2008 qualifier against Belgium and friendly against Kuwait.Which he made his senior debut on 5 June 2007,substituted Quim in 66th minutes. The matched ended in 1-1 draw with Kuwait.He then occasionally received call-up as backup goalkeeper,but rule out from squad against Malta in September 2008.In February 2009,he played his second international match against Finland,replaced Portugal first choice Eduardo in the 60th minutes. Portugal won the match in 1-0.In March 2009,he played as unused bench against Sweden and received his last call-up so far in June against Estonia. He then lost his place as 2nd/3rd goalkeeper,as the coach has call-up José Moreira,Beto,Rui Patrício and Henrique Hilário as backup goalkeeper instead of Fernandes.However,he was named one of the goalkeeper in the 23-man 2010 FIFA World Cup squad.J