Álvaro Ricardo Faustino Gomes (born 3 September 1990), known as Alvarinho, is a Portuguese professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a winger for Moncarapachense. He played five

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

games for

Paços de Ferreira Paços de Ferreira () is a city in the Porto District, in the north of Portugal. The population of the city in 2011 was 7491, while its municipality had 56,340 inhabitants, in an area of 70.99 km². Sometimes referred to as the ''Capital do ...

and Farense, nearly a decade apart, as well as 37 matches and four goals in the second tier for the latter. Abroad, he represented three clubs in the Polish

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

, winning the

national cup The English National Cup is an annual basketball knock-out competition held between professional, semi-professional and amateur teams from the various divisions of the National Basketball League (England), National Basketball League. For most of th ...

with

Zawisza Bydgoszcz Zawisza Bydgoszcz () is a sports club from Bydgoszcz, Poland, founded in 1946. Its name commemorates a legendary Polish 15th-century knight, Zawisza Czarny (Zawisza the Black). The club holds many sections: football, track and field athletics, b ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Club career

Early career

Born in Faro,

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

, Alvarinho began his career at hometown club

S.C. Farense Sporting Clube Farense, simply known as Farense, is a Portuguese professional association football, football club based in Faro, Portugal, Faro in the Faro District, district of the same name and the region of Algarve. Founded in 1910, the club ha ...

in 2009 before a transfer to F.C. Paços de Ferreira a year later. He made his professional debut in his only

appearance for the latter, a 5–1 home win over Académica de Coimbra on the last day of the 2010–11 season, coming on as a 77th-minute substitute for Manuel José. A serious injury limited Alvarinho's prospects at Paços, and after loans to third division sides

C.D. Fátima Centro Desportivo de Fátima, simply known as Fátima, is a Portuguese football club based in Fátima, in the municipality of Ourém. Founded in 1966, it holds home matches at ''Estádio Papa Francisco'', with a capacity of 1,545 spectators. C ...

and S.C.U. Torreense, he joined

Sport Benfica e Castelo Branco Sport Benfica e Castelo Branco, commonly referred to as Benfica e Castelo Branco, is a semi-professional football club based in Castelo Branco, and it is an affiliated club of Benfica. Founded on 24 March 1924, the club has traditionally worn ...

of the same tier in 2012.

Poland

Halfway through the 2013–14 campaign, after he scored seven goals with Benfica, Alvarinho and strike partner Marocas trained at

of the Polish

, and the former eventually made the move permanent. He won the

Polish Cup The Polish Cup in Association football, football ( ) is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout football competition for Polish football club (association football), football clubs, held continuously since 1950, and is the second most i ...

also that year, playing the final nine minutes of

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

in place of Jakub Wójcicki; the game finished goalless and he scored in the

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

against

Zagłębie Lubin Zagłębie Lubin S.A. () is a Polish professional association football, football club based in Lubin. Founded in 1945 as ''OMTUR Lubin'', the club competes in the Ekstraklasa. History The football team was founded in 1945 as OMTUR Lubin by lo ...

at the

Kazimierz Górski National Stadium The Stadion Narodowy (, ), known for sponsorship reasons as the PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna, PGE Narodowy since 2015 (with patron being added in 2021), is a retractable-roof football (soccer), football stadium located in Warsaw, Poland. It is ...

. On 9 July 2014, now under compatriot manager Jorge Paixão, Alvarinho scored as Zawisza defeated league champions

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning a record 15 champions titles, a record 2 ...

3–2 at the

Polish Army Stadium The Polish Armed Forces, Polish Army Stadium (, ), official named the Marshall Józef Piłsudski Legia Warsaw Stadium (), is an all-seater stadium, all-seater, UEFA stadium categories, highest fourth category football-specific stadium located at 3 ...

in the

Polish Super Cup The Polish Super Cup (, ) is an annually held match between the champions of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winners or, if the Ekstraklasa champions also win the Polish Cup, the Cup's runners-up. As of 2024, the Polish Super Cup has been ...

. However, his team was relegated in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

and he remained in the top flight, signing for

Jagiellonia Białystok Jagiellonia Białystok () is a Polish professional football club based in Białystok that plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top level of Polish football. The club was founded in 1920 by soldiers in the 42nd Infantry Regiment Reserve Battalion in Bi ...

on 20 August. A year later, he was loaned to a third team of the league,

Śląsk Wrocław Wrocławski Klub Sportowy Śląsk Wrocław Spółka Akcyjna, commonly known as WKS Śląsk Wrocław (), is a Polish professional Association football, football club based in Wrocław that plays in , the second level of the Polish football leagu ...

Return to Portugal

On 30 August 2017, Alvarinho returned to Farense and the Portuguese third tier, now renamed Campeonato de Portugal. In his first season they were promoted to

LigaPro The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier ...

as runners-up to C.D. Mafra, and at the end of the second, he signed a new two-year contract featuring an undisclosed release clause. In 2019–20, Farense won promotion to the top flight by being in second when the season was abandoned due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

; Alvarinho's one goal came from the bench in a 3–1 home victory over Casa Pia A.C. on the first matchday. After making just four brief cameos as the team went straight back down, he moved to nearby

Louletano D.C. Louletano Desportos Clube is a Portugal, Portuguese club from Loulé, founded on 6 June 1923. The association football team currently play in the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores (Portuguese fourth level), D series. The club plays at the Estádio ...

in the fourth tier, calling it the "best decision".

Honours

Zawisza Bydgoszcz *

: 2013–14 *

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarinho 1990 births Living people 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Faro, Portugal Men's association football wingers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Liga 3 (Portugal) players S.C. Farense players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players C.D. Fátima players S.C.U. Torreense players Sport Benfica e Castelo Branco players Louletano D.C. players Anadia F.C. players Ekstraklasa players I liga players III liga players Zawisza Bydgoszcz players Jagiellonia Białystok players Śląsk Wrocław players Cypriot Second Division players Ethnikos Achna FC players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Poland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus