António 'Toni' Leonel Vidigal (born 1 March 1975) is a Portuguese retired 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 played as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Football career

Born in

Elvas Elvas () is a Portuguese municipality, former episcopal city and frontier fortress of easternmost central Portugal, located in the district of Portalegre in Alentejo. It is situated about east of Lisbon, and about west of the Spanish fortress ...

Portalegre District Portalegre District ( pt, Distrito de Portalegre ) is located in the east of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Portalegre. As of 2021, it is the least populous district of Portugal. Municipalities The district is composed of 15 mu ...

, Vidigal made his senior debuts at only 16, with

O Elvas C.A.D. O Elvas Clube Alentejano de Desportos is a football club based in Elvas, Alentejo. It was founded in 1947 when the team S.L. Elvas and S.C. Elvas fused. Sport Lisboa e Elvas (founded in 1925) and O Elvas CAD spent several years in the Portuguese ...

in 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 ...

. In 1994 he signed with

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

in the second level, going on to remain the following seven years in that tier, also representing

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória (b ...

F.C. Penafiel Futebol Clube de Penafiel ( or ) is a Portuguese Association football, football club founded on 8 February 1951 and based in the city of Penafiel, Portugal, Penafiel. Brief history Penafiel first reached the Portuguese Liga, first division in Po ...

and

Varzim SC Varzim Sport Club () is a Portugal, Portuguese Association football, football team based in Póvoa de Varzim, near Porto in the north of the country. The club was founded on 25 December 1915, and has played at the Estádio do Varzim Sport Club si ...

, achieving

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, ...

promotion with the latter in 2001. After two seasons with Varzim in the top flight (45 games, one goal) and a third in the second division, Vidigal signed with

C.D. Portosantense Clube Desportivo Portosantense, simply Portosantense, is a Portuguese football based in Porto Santo, Madeira. Founded in 1948, it currently plays in the Terceira Divisão The Terceira Divisão Portuguesa (in English: ''Portuguese Third Divisi ...

in level three. Aged 31, he returned to his first senior club, now in the fourth tier, closing out his career in 2010 after a brief spell with amateurs Club Sintra Football.

Personal life

Vidigal had four brothers who were also footballers (from a total of 13 siblings): Beto, Luís, Lito and Jorge. The second represented

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 ...

internationally, whilst the third opted to appear for

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

; his nephew, André, was also involved in the sport professionally.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vidigal, Toni 1975 births Living people People from Elvas Portuguese sportspeople of Angolan descent Portuguese footballers Association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players O Elvas C.A.D. players G.D. Estoril Praia players Vitória F.C. players F.C. Penafiel players Varzim S.C. players Sportspeople from Portalegre District