Ângelo Gaspar Martins (19 April 1930 – 11 October 2020), simply known as Ângelo, was a Portuguese

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 le ...

who played as a defender for Benfica and the Portugal national team.Benfica de luto pelo bicampeão europeu Ângelo Martins
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Club career

Born in

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

on 19 April 1930, Ângelo turned down an opportunity to play

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

for

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

because he was a supporter of rivals Benfica, from

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, and hometown club Salgueiros. In 1945, aged 15, Ângelo started his career playing as a left defender for Académico do Porto, where he spent three years until he was scammed by an FC Porto staff member, who gave him a false document and made him sign for the club while he still was an Académico do Porto player. As a result, the

Portuguese Football Federation The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) ( pt, Federação Portuguesa de Futebol; ) is the governing body of football in Portugal. The federation was formed in 1914 as Portuguese Football Union (UPF) by the three existing regional associations ...

(FPF) banned Ângelo from football, although the punishment would only last for a few months. Three years later, when Ângelo was a worker at his father's shoe store and was serving in the military in Santarém at age 20, a Benfica

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

watched him play and brought him to Lisbon in 1951 to represent Benfica's reserves, with the FPF backing down on his ban. During his 13 seasons with ''The Eagles main team, from 1952 to 1965, he made 285 appearances and scored 4 goals, winning 7

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

titles, 5

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...

, 1

Taça de Honra Taça de Honra (Honour Cup) is a Portuguese friendly football tournament played between teams of the Lisbon Football Association (AFL). It is the third oldest competition in Portugal after the championships of Lisbon and Porto. The format has ...

, and 2 consecutive

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

s (in

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

and

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

). He retired as a player at age 35.

International career

Ângelo played for

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

on 20 occasions. He made his debut in 1953 against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

at the Prater Stadium and played his final match for the country in 1962 against

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

at the

Estádio do Restelo The Estádio do Restelo is a multi-purpose stadium in Lisbon, Portugal. The stadium has a capacity of 19,856 people and was built in 1956, in an old stone quarry. It is situated behind the Jerónimos Monastery in the Lisbon parish of Belém. I ...

Death

Ângelo died of natural causes at 90 years old, on 11 October 2020, in the company of his family.

Honours

Player

Benfica *

: 1954–55, 1956–57, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65 *

: 1952–53, 1954–55, 1956–57, 1961–62, 1963–64 *

: 1962–63 *

: 1960–61, 1961–62 * Intercontinental Cup runner-up:

Manager

Benfica *

Campeonato Nacional de Juniores The Campeonato Nacional de Juniores is the top level of the Portuguese football league system for youth players (19-year-old and under). It is administrated by the Portuguese Football Federation The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) ( pt, F ...

(7) * Campeonato Nacional de Juvenis (6) * Campeonato Nacional de Iniciados (2)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Angelo Martins 1930 births 2020 deaths Footballers from Porto Association football defenders Portuguese footballers Portugal international footballers S.L. Benfica footballers UEFA Champions League winning players