André Filipe Bernardes Santos (born 2 March 1989) 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 le ...

who plays as a defensive midfielder for

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

Club career

Sporting CP

Born in Sobreiro Curvo, Torres Vedras, Santos joined Sporting CP's youth system at the age of 11. He made his senior debut while on loan, with

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. Clu ...

of the

third division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

and

U.D. Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria, commonly known as União de Leiria (), is a Portuguese football club based in Leiria, central Portugal. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home matches at Estádio Dr. M ...

; in the 2009–10 season, with the latter, he first appeared in the

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, ...

, playing 30 complete games to help the club finish in ninth place and being the first Portuguese player to achieve the feat in the league in the process. Santos returned to the ''Lions'' for

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, playing his first official match with the side on 5 August in a 2–1 home win against FC Nordsjælland in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

. He scored his first goal as a professional exactly four months later, helping the visiting team defeat 3–1

Portimonense SC Portimonense Sporting Clube is a Portuguese sports club based in Portimão. Founded on 14 August 1914, it is most notable for its professional football team, which currently plays in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. It a ...

, and finished the campaign with 42 appearances in all competitions (two goals). On 25 August 2011, also in the Europa League and against the same Danish opponent, and with the same match result but now in the playoff round, Santos netted to eventually help Sporting reach the group stage as that was also the aggregate score. However, he eventually lost his importance in the squad under new manager Domingos Paciência. In June 2012, Santos moved alongside a host of compatriots – including Sporting teammate

Diogo Salomão Diogo Ferreira Salomão (born 14 September 1988) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a left winger for C.F. Estrela da Amadora. Club career Born in Amadora, Lisbon District, Salomão played for three teams as a youth, includin ...

– to Deportivo de La Coruña from Spain, in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

-long loan. He made his

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

debut on 1 September by coming on as a late substitute in a 1–1 home draw with

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol (), or simply Getafe, is a professional football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. The team competes in La Liga, the highest tier of the Spanish football system. The club's home stadium (owned and op ...

, but featured sparingly overall and the Galicians were also relegated.

Later career

On 8 August 2014, after one season back in his homeland with Vitória de Guimarães, Santos changed teams and countries again, joining Balıkesirspor in the

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

. In July 2015, he signed a two-year contract with FC Metz of the French

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

. Santos spent the better part of the following four campaigns back in the Portuguese top tier, with

F.C. Arouca Futebol Clube de Arouca () is a football club based in Arouca, Porto Metropolitan Area, Portugal. Founded in 1951, the club plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Estádio Municipal de Arouca, with a 5,000-seat capacity. History Founde ...

and B-SAD. In between, he served a small loan at Romania's

CS Universitatea Craiova U Craiova 1948 Club Sportiv, commonly known as Universitatea Craiova (), CS U Craiova, or simply U Craiova, is a Romanian professional football team based in Craiova, Dolj County, which competes in the Liga I, the top tier of the Romanian leagu ...

. On 28 August 2020, Santos agreed to a deal at

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zürich, commonly referred to as simply GC, GCZ, or Grasshoppers, is a multisports club based in Zürich, Switzerland. The oldest and best known department of the club is its football team. With 27 titles, Grasshopper holds the ...

. After two years and promotion to the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

in his first season, his two-year contract expired and was not renewed.

International career

Santos earned 30 caps for Portugal at youth level, scoring three times. He made his debut for the full side on 29 March 2011, replacing

Rúben Micael Rúben Micael Freitas da Ressureição (born 19 August 1986), known as Micael, is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He totalled 206 Primeira Liga games and 19 goals over ten seasons, representing Nacional, ...

for the last 15 minutes of a 2–0

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

win over

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

in Aveiro.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Santos, Andre 1989 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Torres Vedras Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Liga 3 (Portugal) players Sporting CP footballers C.D. Fátima players U.D. Leiria players Vitória S.C. players F.C. Arouca players B-SAD players Vitória F.C. players U.D. Oliveirense players La Liga players Deportivo de La Coruña players Süper Lig players Balıkesirspor footballers Ligue 2 players FC Metz players Liga I players CS Universitatea Craiova players Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players Grasshopper Club Zürich players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in France Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Romania Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland