Alberto Alves Coelho (born 21 July 1993), known as Betinho, is 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 plays for S.C. Espinho as a striker.

Club career

Sporting CP

Born in

Santa Maria de Lamas Santa Maria de Lamas (Portuguese meaning ''Saint Mary of Lamas'') is a Portuguese civil parish located in the municipality of Santa Maria da Feira, in the district of Aveiro, in the Entre Douro e Vouga Subregion. It is located between the Douro an ...

Aveiro District Aveiro District ( pt, Distrito de Aveiro, or ) is located in the central coastal region of Portugal. The capital of the district is the city of Aveiro, which also serves as the seat of Aveiro Municipality. Aveiro District is bordered by the Po ...

, Betinho signed for

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

at the age of 11, from local C.F. União de Lamas. He then proceeded to play for every youth side at the club. On 14 December 2011, Betinho was called for a

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 ...

group stage game away against S.S. Lazio, alongside youth graduates

Ricardo Esgaio Ricardo de Sousa Esgaio (; born 16 May 1993) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Sporting CP as a right-back. Club career Sporting CP Born in Nazaré, Leiria District, Esgaio joined Sporting CP's youth system at the age of 12, ...

Tiago Ilori Tiago Abiola Delfim Almeida Ilori (born 26 February 1993) is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a centre-back for F.C. Paços de Ferreira on loan from Sporting CP. He started his career with Sporting, making his debut with the first team in ...

, João Carlos and João Mário, as the ''Lions'' had already secured the first place in their group. He remained an unused substitute in the 2–0 loss. Betinho started the 2012–13 season with Sporting's reserves, in the Segunda Liga. He made his debut as a professional on 18 August by playing three minutes in a 1–0 home win against

Vitória S.C. B Vitória Guimarães B is a Portuguese football team founded in 2012. They are the reserve team of Vitória Guimarães. Reserve teams in Portugal play in the same league system as the senior team, rather than in a reserve team league. However, the ...

, and scored his first goal in the competition four days later in the 2–1 home victory over

S.C. Covilhã Sporting Clube da Covilhã, commonly known as just Sporting da Covilhã, is Portuguese association football, football club from the city of Covilhã that plays in the second-tier Liga Portugal 2. The club was founded in 1923. Their nickname is the ...

. Late into the following month he made his first

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, ...

appearance, replacing

André Carrillo André Martín Carrillo Díaz (born 14 June 1991) is a Peruvian professional footballer who plays for Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal and the Peru national team as a winger or second striker. Carrillo began his senior career in 2009 with Alianza ...

in the 74th minute of an eventual 2–2 home draw 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 ...

. Betinho was part of the under-19 side that finished third at the

2012–13 NextGen Series The 2012–13 NextGen Series was the second season of the NextGen Series. The tournament involved the under-19 teams from 24 different countries across Europe. The tournament was won by Aston Villa who overcame Chelsea in the final. Format ch ...

. During the first part of the 2013–14 campaign, he scored nine second-division goals for Sporting B. In January 2014, Betinho joined Vitória F.C. of the top flight on loan until June. He played just four minutes in his first match, a 1–0 defeat at

Gil Vicente F.C. Gil Vicente Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Gil Vicente, founded in 1924, is a Portuguese football club that plays in Barcelos. It competes in the Primeira Liga, the top division of football in the country, and it is named after the Portugues ...

on 2 March. On 1 September 2014, Betinho moved to English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

side

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

on a season-long loan, to cover for the injured

Scott Hogan Scott Andrew Hogan (born 13 April 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Birmingham City and the Republic of Ireland national team. Hogan played in the youth system at Rochdale but was released in 2010. He entered ...

; manager

Mark Warburton Mark Warburton (born 6 September 1962) is an English professional football manager and former player who is a first-team coach at West Ham United. As a player, Warburton was a right back at non-League level with Enfield and Boreham Wood. He beg ...

had previously been impressed by his performances in the

NextGen Series The NextGen Series was a European football club cup competition for under-19 footballers. It was designed to provide players with the opportunity to match themselves against other elite European footballers of their agegroup in a competitive envi ...

, a competition he helped organise, and described the player as "quick, strong and technically gifted". International clearance problems meant he was only included in the squad for the match against

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

on 16 September, and he made his debut in the 0–3 home loss by replacing

Stuart Dallas Stuart Dallas (born 19 April 1991) is a Northern Irish professional Association football, footballer who plays for Premier League club Leeds United F.C., Leeds United and the Northern Ireland national football team, Northern Ireland national team ...

after 77 minutes. After remaining on the bench through most first-team games in late September, October and then being left out of the squad entirely, Warburton explained in early November that Betinho was working to adapt to the

English game English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. Ultimately, he failed to win a call before the end of the season and instead spent time in the development squad, scoring three goals in six appearances.

Belenenses

Betinho signed a four-year contract with

C.F. Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Rest ...

on 12 August 2015, with Sporting retaining 60% of his economic rights. Having played only 350 minutes, he was loaned back to his former club five months later; this was his only possible destination having already represented them in the first game of the season. On 11 August 2017, after having featured just three times in the preceding campaign, Betinho was lent to another second-tier team,

C.F. União Clube de Futebol União, commonly known as União or União da Madeira, was a Portuguese association football, football club based in Funchal, Madeira, notable for its six appearances in the Portuguese top-flight Primeira Liga, between the 1989� ...

. Sixteen days later, he scored on his debut in a 2–2 home draw with Sporting B, having been put on at

half-time In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...

by manager Paulo Alves. Betinho left 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 ...

temporarily again in July 2018, for Lusitânia F.C. in his hometown.

Espinho

After reaching an agreement with Sporting and Belenenses, S.C. Espinho signed Betinho on 23 July 2019.

International career

Betinho 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 ...

from under-15 to under-21 level. He had a prolific goalscoring spell with the under-19 side, scoring 14 goals in 20 games and topping the

2012 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification 2012 UEFA European Under-19 Championship (qualifying round) was the first round of qualifications for the Final Tournament of 2012 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. The 48 teams were divided into 12 groups of four teams, with each group being c ...

chart with ten strikes. He scored twice in the finals, with the national team exiting in the group stage. Betinho was part of the

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

that competed in the

2013 Toulon Tournament The 2013 Toulon Tournament was the 41st edition of the Toulon Tournament. México were the defending champions but failed to secure a spot in the finals. Participants * (hosts) * * * * * * * * * Squads Venues Results ''All times are local ...

, helping the team to a fourth-place finish in spite of failing to score in three appearances. He made his debut for the under-21s on 5 September of that year, starting and scoring in a 5–1 home rout of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

in the 2015 European Under-21 Championship qualifiers.

References

External links

* *
National team data
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Betinho 1993 births Living people Sportspeople from Santa Maria da Feira Portuguese footballers Association football forwards Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players C.F. União de Lamas players Sporting CP footballers Sporting CP B players Vitória F.C. players C.F. Os Belenenses players C.F. União players Lusitânia F.C. players S.C. Espinho players English Football League players Brentford F.C. players Portugal youth international footballers Portugal under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in England