Almami Samori da Silva Moreira (born 16 June 1978) is a

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ), ...

an retired

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 ...

who played as a

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 ...

. He also holds

Portuguese citizenship Portuguese nationality law details the conditions by which a person is a Nationality, national of Portugal. The primary law governing nationality regulations is the Nationality Act, which Coming into force, came into force on 3 October 1981. P ...

. After starting out at Boavista he went on to represent mainly

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

and

Partizan Partizan may refer to: Sport * JSD Partizan, a sports society from Belgrade, Serbia, which includes the following clubs: **AK Partizan, athletics ** Biciklistički Klub Partizan, cycling ** Džudo Klub Partizan, judo **FK Partizan, association fo ...

, also playing professionally in four other countries during his career.

Club career

Boavista

Born in Bissau,

, Moreira reached

Boavista FC Boavista Futebol Clube, commonly known as Boavista (), is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Porto. Founded on 1 August 1903 by British entrepreneurs and Portuguese textile workers (thus the "FC" being appended – the British way as oppos ...

's youth ranks in 1994, but started out professionally with northern neighbours Gondomar S.C. and Gil Vicente FC, on loan. He returned in 1999 and went on to have relative impact in the first team, being mainly used as a substitute and being part of the squad as the club won the Primeira Liga in his last year, although he did not appear in any matches whatsoever due to a contract dispute.

Belgium / Russia

With the start of the new millennium Moreira moved to

, where he quickly became a fan favourite, going on to spend five years in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, a loan to

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

in 2004–05 notwithstanding. In August 2006, he joined

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

FC Dynamo Moscow FC Dynamo Moscow (''FC Dynamo Moskva'', russian: Дина́мо Москва́ ) is a Russian football club based in Moscow. Dynamo returned to the Russian Premier League for the 2017–18 season after one season in the second-tier Russian Foot ...

, a club that was signing a large number of Portuguese and Portugal-based players at the time. Unsettled as the vast majority of those, he returned to his country of adoption in January, as lowly

C.D. Aves Clube Desportivo das Aves (), commonly known as Desportivo das Aves, or simply as Aves, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Vila das Aves, Santo Tirso. The club was founded on 12 November 1930 and plays at the Estádio do Clube ...

battled to avoid relegation from the top level, which eventually did not happen.

Partizan

On 5 July 2007, Moreira signed a two-year contract with

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; en, Partizan Football Club), sometimes known as Partizan Belgrade in English, is a Serbia, Serbian professional football club (association football), football ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

, being handed the #10 shirt whilst also becoming the first Portuguese player to represent the club. Very quickly he became the leading player of the team with which he managed to win two Doubles in a row, which happened for the first time in the history of the club. He made his competitive debut on 19 July in a match against

HŠK Zrinjski Mostar HŠK Zrinjski Mostar ( hr, Hrvatski športski klub Zrinjski Mostar, lit=Croat Sports Club Zrinjski Mostar) is a professional football club, based in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The club plays in the Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ...

, and scored his first official goal on 2 August in a

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

fixture against the same club. On 29 September 2007, Moreira scored against

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

rivals Red Star in a 2–2 draw – this made him the first ever Portuguese to score in a Belgrade derby. In his first season at the club he appeared 28 times and netted seven times, as Partizan won the league title; to this he added the domestic cup. In a

match at

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA E ...

, on 3 December 2008, Moreira collapsed early into the game, being immediately taken into observation, and fully recovering. On 10 April 2009 he agreed to sign a new three-year contract, running until 2012. Following impressive and consistent performances, Moreira was named in the 2008–09 ''SuperLiga Team of the Year'', alongside seven teammates, as the double was again conquered – he was also voted as the club's Player of the Year in 2008 by the fans. On 28 February 2009, he scored the 1–1 equaliser at home against Red Star; on 5 August, grieving the loss of his mother a day earlier, he decided to play in the second leg of his team's

UEFA Champions League 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 competi ...

qualifier In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", provi ...

against

APOEL FC APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

: he scored the opener in the third minute, but the Cypriots eventually progressed 2–1 on aggregate. On 27 February 2010, Moreira made his 100th competitive match for Partizan, coming on as a 55th-minute substitute for Saša Ilić against

FK Borac Čačak Fudbalski klub Borac Čačak (), or simply Borac Čačak, is a professional football club based in Čačak, Serbia. The home ground is Čačak Stadium, which has seating capacity of 8,000. As of 2019–20 season, the club competes in third tier S ...

. He missed several games at the beginning of the following campaign due to injury, returning to action on 15 October in a 5–3 home league victory over

FK Smederevo Fudbalski klub Smederevo 1924 ( sr-cyr, Фудбалски клуб Смедерево 1924), commonly known as Smederevo, is a Serbian professional football club based in Smederevo. During Yugoslavia the club mainly played in amateur ranks of co ...

where he provided two assists. Four days later he made his Champions League debut, in a 0–2 group stage away loss to

S.C. Braga Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese ...

; late in the same month, he scored the only goal at Red Star for the domestic league.

Later years

Moreira split the following years with

Dalian Aerbin F.C. Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on the ...

in China and another team in Serbia,

FK Vojvodina Fudbalski klub Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Војводина), commonly known as Vojvodina and colloquially as Voša ( sr-Cyrl, Воша), is a Serbian professional football club based in Novi Sad, Vojvodina, the second l ...

. In late 2012 the 34-year-old moved clubs and countries again, joining

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

UD Salamanca Unión Deportiva Salamanca, S.A.D. () was a historical Spanish football team based in Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 February 1923 and nicknamed ''Los Charros'', the club played in white shirts and blac ...

. Moreira retired in 2013 at the age of 35, being named Atlético Clube de Portugal's

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

. He came out of retirement in January of the following year, after being convinced by newly appointed coach Neca.

International career

Moreira played for Portugal under-21s on 12 occasions in the late 1990s, and in 2002 he was part of the national B-team that won the ''Vale do Tejo'' summer tournament. In 2010, with the increasing development and professionalization of football in Guinea-Bissau, he decided to represent the land of his ancestors at full level, earning his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

in October of that year at the age of 32.

Personal life

His son

Diego Diego is a Spanish masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''. ...

is also a professional footballer.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Club

Partizan *

Serbian SuperLiga The Serbian Super League ( sr, Супер лига Србије / Super liga Srbije), referred to as the Mozzart Bet Super League ( sr, Моцарт Бет Супер лига / Mozzart Bet Super liga) for sponsorship reasons, is a Serbian profes ...

: 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10,

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. ...

Serbian Cup The Serbian Cup (Serbian: Куп Србије, Kup Srbije) is the national football cup of Serbia. The winner of the competition gets a spot in the UEFA Europa League qualifying round. From 2006 to 2010, the competition was known as the Lav Cup f ...

: 2007–08, 2008–09,

Dalian Aerbin *

China League One The Chinese Football Association China League (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (中甲联赛), is the second level of professional football in China. Above League One is the Chinese Super League. Prior to the formation of ...

: 2011

Individual

*Man of the Season – Most regular Standard player of the season (through voting in official website): 2001–02; Runner-up 2002–03, 2003–04; Third 2005–06 *Trophy Scharlaken UGH – Standard player of the season (presented by Les Rouches de Flandres fanclub in cooperation with the official website): 2001–02, 2002–03 *

Serbian SuperLiga Team of the Season The Serbian SuperLiga Team of the Season is an annual award given to a set of 11 footballers in the top tier of Serbian football, the SuperLiga, who are seen to be the best 11 players of the calendar season. Winners 2008–09 Source 2009–10 ...

: 2008–09, 2009–10 *Partizan Player of the Year: 2008

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Moreira, Almami 1978 births Living people Sportspeople from Bissau Bissau-Guinean footballers Portuguese footballers Association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Boavista F.C. players Gondomar S.C. players Gil Vicente F.C. players C.D. Aves players Atlético Clube de Portugal players Belgian Pro League players Standard Liège players Bundesliga players Hamburger SV players Russian Premier League players FC Dynamo Moscow players Serbian SuperLiga players FK Partizan players FK Vojvodina players China League One players Dalian Professional F.C. players Segunda División B players UD Salamanca players Portugal youth international footballers Portugal under-21 international footballers Guinea-Bissau international footballers Bissau-Guinean expatriate footballers Portuguese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Russia Expatriate footballers in Serbia Expatriate footballers in China Expatriate footballers in Spain Bissau-Guinean emigrants to Portugal Bissau-Guinean expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Bissau-Guinean expatriate sportspeople in Germany Bissau-Guinean expatriate sportspeople in Russia Bissau-Guinean expatriate sportspeople in Serbia Bissau-Guinean expatriate sportspeople in China Bissau-Guinean expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portugal B international footballers