Botafogo sign former Porto star

Rio de Janeiro, May 3 (IANS) Botafogo have signed former Porto midfielder Carlos Alberto in a one-year deal, the Brazilian club announced.

The 29-year-old joined the Rio de Janeiro outfit from Goias, with whom he played just six matches after completing a one-year doping ban, reports Xinhua.

Botafogo coach Vagner Mancini said he had been impressed by the playmaker while at Vasco da Gama in 2010.

"I've worked with him before and know his potential. He is above average in many areas," Mancini said during a press conference Friday.

"He hasn't been playing as well as he is capable of, but we have evaluated him and think that he can be of value to us."

Carlos Alberto was last year banned for a year by a Rio sports tribunal after testing positive to masking agents hydrochlorothiazide and metabolic tamoxifen.

The player says he unknowingly took the substances in a vitamin supplement.

A teenage Carlos Alberto played a key role in Jose Mourinho's Porto side that won the 2004 Champions League.

He scored the opening goal of the final against Monaco that set the tone for Porto's 3-0 victory in the German city of Gelsenkirchen.