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Ex-Portsmouth Defender Rocha On Trial - Ipswich Town News

Former Portsmouth and Tottenham defender Ricardo Rocha is on trial at Playford Road this week. The 33-year-old left Pompey at the end of last season.

Blues manager Paul Jewell told the club site that the six-times-capped Portuguese international joined up with the club yesterday: "Ricardo is here for the week and we will take it from there.”

Santo Tirso-born Rocha played youth football with ARC Areias and started his senior career with Famalicão before moving on to Braga and Benfica. During five years with the Lisbon side he won the Portuguese League, Cup and Supercup and appeared in the Champions League.

In January 2007 he joined Tottenham for £3.3 million but having made only 16 first team starts and two sub appearances he moved on to Belgian side Standard Liege in the summer of 2009.

A year later he was off to Pompey, where he played until being released in May, making 71 starts and five appearances from the bench.

Last week one-time Bolton and West Brom centre-half Abdoulaye Meite was on trial with the Blues but Town are yet to take their interest any further.

The 33-year-old told the French press that he wasn't confident of winning a deal despite impressing Jewell, citing Town's current lowly position in the table and suggesting that the manager might not be persuade the Blues' money men to offer terms: "I am rather pessimistic, because he is not in a strong position at the moment because of the bad position of the team."

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