Bernardo Silva, Pauleta, Raphaël Guerreiro, Anthony Lopes and Jose Fonte — five of the Portuguese players who have left their mark on Ligue 1 Uber Eats.
Ahead of France's Nations League encounter with the UEFA EURO 2016 champions at the Stade de France on Sunday, ligue1.com focusses on the Portuguese players who made a name for themselves in France.
Current players
José Fonte, Tiago Djalo, Xeka and Renato Sanches (Lille), Pedro Mendes (Montpellier), Anthony Lopes (Lyon), Gelson Martins and Florentino Luis (Monaco), Rony Lopes (Nice), Heriberto Tavares (Dijon), Mathias Pereira Lage (Angers), David Pereira da Costa (Lens) and the most recent arrival, Danilo Pereira (PSG), make 13 Portuguese players currently playing in the French top-flight. In total, there have been 87 Portuguese players in the history of the league.
WATCH: Pauleta heaps misery on Marseille at the Parc des Princes
The Ligue 1 champions
Fernando Chalana was one of the first to really make his mark, leaving Benfica for Bordeaux in 1984 and winning the title the following year, one of three seasons he played in France.
Costinha joined that club in 1999/00 when he won the title with Monaco, the team he helped Porto beat in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League final.
Tiago enjoyed his time at Lyon, winning back-to-back titles in 2006 and '07 before Joao Moutinho and Bernardo Silva played a key role in Monaco's stunning 2016/17 win. Bernardo had played just three games for Benfica before moving to the principality where he really made his name as a world-class talent.
The stars
The year 2000 saw the arrival of the Portuguese who had the most influence on French football. Pedro Pauleta joined Bordeaux from Deportivo La Coruna at the turn of the millenium, and his debut hat-trick in a 5-0 win over Nantes set the tone for a fabulous eight years in France.
He's the Portuguese player with most L1 appearances (266) and the most goals (161). He was named the division's best player in 2002 and 2003, the latter his first year at PSG, and finished leading scorer in 2006 (21 goals) and 2007 (15 goals). He won two Coupes de la Ligue (2002, 2008) and two Coupes de France (2004, 2005).
Ricardo Carvalho, who won a host of medals with Porto, Chelsea and Real Madrid, joined Monaco in 2013, and stayed there for three seasons. Guerreiro — ex-Caen and Lorient and now at Borussia Dortmund —and Lyon goalkeeper Lopes were both born in France, but helped Portugal to the European title at the expense of their birth nation in 2016. Eder was a Lille player at the time he scored the winning goal in the final at the Stade de France, while Fonte remains at the Stade Pierre Mauroy after joining in 2018.
The coaches
There were three Portuguese tacticians in L1 last season when Andre Villas-Boas took charge at Marseille, though he is the only one remaining after Paulo Sousa and Leonardo Jardim left Bordeaux and Monaco respectively.
Jardim was only the second Portuguese coach to win the L1 title when he guided Monaco to the 2016-17 crown, following in the footsteps of Artur Jorge, who had steered PSG to the summit of French football in 1993-94.
Portuguese all-time leading L1 appearance makers
1. Pedro Miguel Pauleta (Girondins de Bordeaux, PSG) - 266 matches, 141 goals
2. Anthony Lopes (OL) - 249 matches
3. Joao Moutinho (AS Monaco) - 158 matches, 9 goals
4. Rony Lopes (LOSC, AS Monaco, OGC Nice) - 130 matches, 26 goals
5. Pedro Mendes (Stade Rennais, Montpellier HSC) - 128 matches, 3 goals
6. Paulo Machado (AS Saint-Etienne, Toulouse FC) - 124 matches, 15 goals
7. Bruno Basto (Girondins de Bordeaux, AS Saint-Etienne) - 123 matches
8. Raphaël Guerreiro (FC Lorient) - 102 matches, 10 goals
9. Bernardo Silva (AS Monaco) - 101 matches, 24 goals
