José Oliveira de Sousa

José Augusto Oliveira de Sousa (born 25 February 1974) is a Portuguese born Spanish professional darts player (steel and soft-darts). He is based in Tarragona and represented Spain at the 2011 WDF World Cup, but represented his home country Portugal afterwards at the PDC.

Not to be confused with José Oliveira de Souza.

José de Sousa
Personal information
Full name	José Augusto Oliveira de Sousa[1]
Nickname	The Special One
Born	(1974-02-25) 25 February 1974 Azambuja, Lisbon, Portugal
Home town	Tarragona, Catalunya Spain
Darts information
Playing darts since	1993
Darts	20g Trinidad Signautre
Laterality	Right-handed
Walk-on music	"I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)" by Pitbull
Organisation (see split in darts)
PDC	2011–
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Last 72: 2012
World Matchplay	Last 32: 2020
UK Open	Last 96: 2020
Players Ch'ship Finals	Last 32: 2019
Other tournament wins
Catalonia National Championships 2009, 2012 Catalonia Open Darts 2012 FCD Anniversary Open 2016 PDC World West European Qualifying Event 2011 Soft Tip Bullshooter European Championship 2013 Spanish Federation Cup 2017 International Open Vizcaya 2017 Players Championships Players Championship (BAR) 2019 Players Championship (DUB) 2019

Career

De Sousa qualified for the 2012 PDC World Darts Championship by winning the Western European qualifier, beating Eduardo Lopes in the final. He became the first Portuguese player to qualify for either version of the World Darts Championship. He lost 4–3 in the preliminary round to South Africa's Devon Petersen.[2] In the rest of the year, he won the Catalonia National Championship and the Catalan Open by beating Antonio Jimenez in the final.[3][4] De Soua claimed the 2013 Soft Tip Bullshooter European Championship with a win over Franck Guillermont.[5] He reached the final of the 2015 Catalan Open, but lost 6–1 to Carles Arola.[6]

De Sousa won the 2016 FCD Anniversary Open by overcoming Willem Mandigers 6–1 in the final.[7] In 2017 on the second day of Q School he came close to winning a two-year PDC Tour Card, but lost 5–2 to Royden Lam in the final round.[8]

After a first round defeat at the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship to Michael Barnard, De Sousa went to PDC European Q-School in January 2019 and won a Tour Card for the first time, finishing sixth on the Order of Merit to seal at least two years on the PDC ProTour.[9]

He made gradual improvements throughout his first year on tour, and made his maiden PDC final at Players Championship 18, but lost 8–5 to James Wade. De Sousa then became the first Portuguese player to win a PDC title at Players Championship 23. He beat Peter Wright 7–3 in the semi-finals and Gerwyn Price 8–1 in the final.

World Championship results

PDC

• 2012: Preliminary round (lost to Devon Petersen 3–4)
• 2019: First round (lost to Michael Barnard 2–3)
• 2020: First round (lost to Damon Heta 0–3)

References

1. Dardos en Tarragona: José Augusto Oliveira de Sousa (V): profile (Spanish)
2. World Championship - Night Seven Archived 2012-01-07 at the Wayback Machine PDC.tv
3. "2012 Catalonia National Championships Player Prize Money". Darts Database. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
4. "2012 Catalan Open Player Prize Money". Darts Database. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
5. "2013 Soft Tip Bullshooter European Championship Player Prize Money". Darts Database. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
6. "2015 Catalan Open Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
7. "2016 FCD Anniversary Open Results". Darts Database. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
8. "2017 PDC Qualifying School Day Two". PDC. Archived from the original on 22 January 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
9. "European Q School Tour Card Winners Confirmed". PDC. Retrieved 15 January 2019.

External links

• Player profile on José de Sousa from Dartsdatabase