Sérgio Paulo Marceneiro Conceição was born in Coimbra, Portugal, on November 15, 1974.
He started his career playing for local team Associação Académica.
His early years as a player were in the Segunda Liga with Penafiel (‘93- ‘94, with 30 matches and 2 goals), Leça (’94 -‘95, with 24 matches and 3 goals) and Felgueiras (‘95-‘96, with 30 matches and 4 goals).
In 1996 he made the big step up to Porto. He immediately played regularly and in two seasons played 46 league games with 9 goals, 6 in the Portuguese Cup with 1 goal, 11 in the Champions League and 4 in the Portuguese Supercup. In this period, he won two league titles, a Portuguese Cup and a Portuguese Supercup.
In the summer of 1998 he joined Lazio. He only stayed two years but they were highly successful under Sven-Goran Eriksson. In his first official game he scored the winner in the Italian Supercoppa beating Juventus 2-1. In May 1999 Lazio won the European Cup Winners Cup and the European Super Cup, in 2000 the Scudetto and the Coppa Italia for a historic double.
Conceição played 63 league games with 7 goals (Inter x2, Inter again, Vicenza, Venezia, Perugia, Bologna), 9 in Coppa Italia, 14 in Europe (5 CWC, 9 CL) with 3 goals (Lausanne, Maribor, Olimpique Marseille) and the Italian Supercup.
In 2000 the fans were sad to see him move to Parma in the deal that brought striker Hernan Crespo to Lazio. In Emilia he only stayed one season. The Gialloblù finished 4th (CL qualification) under Alberto Malesani (1-13), Arrigo Sacchi (14-16) and Renzo Ulivieri (17-34). The "Ducali" also reached the Coppa Italia final but lost to Fiorentina 1-2 on aggregate. He played 25 league games with 5 goals (Bologna, Lazio, Atalanta, Fiorentina, Brescia), 5 in Coppa Italia and 6 in the UEFA Cup with 2 goals (Pobeda, Munich 1860).
In 2001 he moved to Inter and was reunited with Christian Vieri. Here he was coached by Héctor Cúper. In his first year Inter threw away the Scudetto on the last game of the season, losing 4-2 to Lazio on the infamous 5th of May. They reached the UEFA Cup semi-final but lost 2-3 on aggregate to Feyenoord. Conceição played 23 league 6 with 1 goal (Udinese), 1 in Coppa Italia and 8 in the UEFA Cup.
In his second season with the Nerazzurri he played slightly less in the league, 19 games, 1 in Coppa Italia with 1 goal (Bari) but was protagonist in the Champions League with 13 games. Inter finished 2nd in Serie A and reached the semi-finals of Champions League but were beaten by city rivals Milan on away goals.
In 2002-2003 he came back to Lazio. Here he found his former team mate Roberto Mancini as manager. Conceição struggled with fitness but played 7 league games, 2 in Coppa Italia and 7 in the Champions League. In January however he returned to Porto.
He played another 12 games for "os Dragões" and won another league title.
In 2004 he moved to Belgium and played three seasons for Standard Liège. He totalled 91 games with 22 goals. In his first year he was voted Player of the Year in Belgium. "Les Rouches" (The Reds in Liège accent). In 2005 Standard finished 2nd in the league while in 2007 they lost the final of the Belgian Cup to Club Brugge 0-1. In 2006 he was banned for 4.5 months for spitting on an opposing player and assaulting the referee.
In 2007 he moved to Kuwait to Qadsia SC but did not settle and in January joined PAOK FC in Greece, where Portuguese Fernando Santos was coach. He stayed two seasons and in the second suffered from knee problems. He made 47 appearances and scored 6 goals. In January 2010 he retired.
He won 56 caps for Portugal with 12 goals. He played in Euro 2000 scoring a hat-trick against Germany and reaching the semi-finals. He also played in the 2002 World Cup.
After a couple of years, he went into coaching. He started off in Portugal, in 2012 he was at Olhanense (11th), 2013 Académica Coimbra, 2014 Braga (4th) and 2015 Vitória Guimarães. In 2016 he moved to Nantes in France and finished 7th in Ligue 1.
In 2017 he was ready to return to Porto. Since going back to "os Azuis e Brancos" he has won 3 league titles, 3 Supercups and 3 Portuguese Cups. He has established himself as one of European top coaches.
Conceição was an attacking midfielder. He was physically strong at 1.78 metres and 74 kilos. He usually played on the right wing and had strength, dribbling skills, good shooting abilities and an excellent cross. He was a hard worker and could defend and cover as well as pushing forward.
He has had a 2,500-seater stadium named after him in his home town of Coimbra, famous for its university and library. On a family note he has five children, two of whom have played under him at Porto.
At Lazio he was a great success and a fan favourite. He had his own chant "O meu amigo Conceição" based on the Charlie Brown tune. In his two years he won five trophies and was part of the most winning period in Lazio's history. He was popular because he was a fighter but also technically gifted. Some of his crosses in his first year for Salas and Vieri are text book stuff. He was also always willing to contribute on local Lazio radio and TV programmes so generally integrating well into the "piazza" as they say here (basically the local environment). As part of the 2000 Scudetto winning team Sergio Conceição will always be welcome in Rome. Obrigado Sérgio! Many dream of him one day returning as manager.
Lazio Career
Season | Total games (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Cup Winners Cup | Super Coppa |
1998-99 | 44 (7) | 33 (5) | 5 | - | 5 (1) | 1 (1) |
1999-00 | 43 (4) | 30 (2) | 4 | 9 (2) | ​ | - |
2003-Jan 2004 | 16 | 7 | 2 | 7 | ​ | - |
Total | 113 (11) | 70 (7) | 11 | 16 (2) | 5 (1) | 1 (1) |
Sources