Alexandre Henrique Gonçalves de Freitas (born 27 August 1991), commonly known as Alex, 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 mainly as a

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

Clube Caçadores das Taipas Clube Caçadores das Taipas is a Portuguese sports club from Caldas das Taipas, Guimarães. The men's football team plays in the Braga Football Association Serie 2. They played for many years in the old Terceira Divisão, but had stints on th ...

Club career

Porto

Born in

Funchal Funchal () officially Funchal City (), is the capital, largest city and a Municipality (Portugal), municipality in Portugal's Madeira, Autonomous Region of Madeira, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The city has a population of 105,795, making it ...

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

, Alex started his career with local

C.D. Nacional Clube Desportivo Nacional (), commonly known as Nacional da Madeira and sometimes just Nacional, is a Portuguese football club based in Funchal, on the island of Madeira. Founded on 8 December 1910, it currently plays in the Liga Portugal , P ...

. In 2005, the 14-year-old signed for

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), 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 association footbal ...

and went on to complete his development with the

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 ...

giants. During his only season as a senior with the northerners, 2009–10, Alex was summoned to four games with the first team: on 17 October 2009, he played 20 minutes against Sertanense F.C. in the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de 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 Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

after coming on as a substitute for

Mariano González Mariano Nicolás González (born 5 May 1981) is a retired Argentine professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or as a winger. Club career Born in Tandil, Buenos Aires Province, González started his career at Racing Club d ...

in a 4–0 home win. He also remained on the bench in two

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...

matches A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...

and the 2–1 group-stage home victory over

APOEL FC APOEL FC (; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") is a Cypriot professio ...

in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

Santa Clara

In the summer of 2010, Alex signed with C.D. Santa Clara of the Segunda Liga. He appeared in 26 games (19 starts) in his

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

with the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

club. Alex scored his first goal for the team on 22 October 2011, through a

penalty Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to: Sports * Foul (sports) ** Penalty (golf) ** Penalty (gridiron football) ** Penalty (ice hockey) ** Penalty (rugby) ** Penalty (rugby union) ** Penalty kick (assoc ...

and also providing an assist in a 2–1 home defeat of

U.D. Oliveirense União Desportiva Oliveirense (UDO), commonly known as Oliveirense, is a Portugal, Portuguese sports club from the city of Oliveira de Azeméis, in Aveiro District. The club was founded on 25 October 1922. The main football (soccer), football te ...

. He repeated the feat the following weekend and in the same fashion, helping the visitors draw 2–2 at C.D. Aves.

Guimarães

On 3 July 2013, Alex joined

Vitória S.C. Vitória Sport Clube, popularly known as Vitória de Guimarães or sometimes just Vitória, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Guimarães that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football, at the Est ...

on a four-year contract. He was initially assigned to their reserves in the third division. Alex managed to find the net in his Portuguese top flight debut on 4 April 2014, but in a 1–3 home loss to

G.D. Estoril Praia Grupo Desportivo Estoril Praia (), commonly known as Estoril, is a Portuguese professional sports club from Estoril, Cascais, Lisbon. Founded on 17 May 1939, its Association football, football team currently plays in Primeira Liga and hold home g ...

. On 31 January 2017, having been rarely played over the course of his

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

and fourth seasons, he was loaned to Moreirense F.C. in the same league until June. He scored twice during his short spell – including once in a 3–1 home win against Porto – helping to a narrow escape from relegation.

Salernitana

In the 2017 off-season, Alex moved abroad for the first time and signed with

US Salernitana 1919 Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919 is an Italian professional football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recently in 2011. The current ...

from the Italian

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

. In the following

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

, he was loaned to fellow second-tier

FC Pro Vercelli 1892 Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly referred to as Pro Vercelli, is an Italian football club based in Vercelli, Piedmont. The club is mostly renowned as one of the most successful teams in the early football era of Italy, with seven natio ...

International career

In 2009, Alex was part of the Portugal under-19 side that failed to make the 2009 UEFA European Championship. As the country

qualified Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

for the next edition in France, he contributed four goals in six matches and was picked for the final squad in an eventual group-stage exit. Alex was selected for

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

's squad at the

2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 18th FIFA U-20 World Cup. Colombia hosted the tournament between 29 July and 20 August 2011, with matches being played in eight cities. The tournament was won by Brazil national under-20 football team, Brazil w ...

. He played all the games but one in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

''en route'' to the second place, scoring in the 3–2 final defeat against

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Honours

Porto *

: 2009–10 Portugal U20 *

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

runner-up:

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Orders *

Knight of the

Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Henry () is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese ''infante'' Prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of the Age of Discovery. M ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Freitas, Alex 1991 births Living people 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Funchal Men's association football wingers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Liga 3 (Portugal) players FC Porto players C.D. Santa Clara players Vitória S.C. B players Vitória S.C. players Moreirense F.C. players Vitória F.C. players Casa Pia A.C. players C.D. Cova da Piedade players S.C.U. Torreense players Berço SC players Clube Caçadores das Taipas players Serie B players US Salernitana 1919 players FC Pro Vercelli 1892 players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Italy