Carlos Alberto Correia Fortes (born 20 October 1968), commonly known as Cao, is a
Portuguese 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
defensive midfielder.
Club career
Cao was born in
Praia
Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.[Cape Verde
, national_anthem = ()
, official_languages = Portuguese
, national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole
, capital = Praia
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, demonym ...]
. After unsuccessfully emerging through
FC Porto
Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, 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 football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Por ...
's youth academy he went on to play 12 seasons in the
two major levels of Portuguese football, representing
Rio Ave FC (
second division),
F.C. Tirsense
Futebol Clube Tirsense, commonly known as just Tirsense, is a Portuguese football club from Santo Tirso, founded on January 5, 1938. They currently play in the Divisão de Elite of AF Porto. They currently play their home games in Abel Alves de F ...
(
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 ...
),
Leça FC (first and second tiers),
S.C. Salgueiros
Sport Comércio e Salgueiros (), commonly known as simply Salgueiros, is a Portuguese multi-sports club from the city of Porto, in the northern region of the country.
Founded on 8 December 1911, in the parish of Paranhos, it is mostly known f ...
(both),
S.C. Campomaiorense
Sporting Clube Campomaiorense, more commonly known as Campomaiorense, is a Portuguese football club from Campo Maior, Portalegre District. The club was founded on the 1 July 1926. The club currently plays at the Estádio Capitão Cesar Correia whi ...
(both) and
F.C. Felgueiras
Futebol Clube de Felgueiras was a Portuguese football club from Felgueiras. The club was founded on 16 August 1936 and ended in 2005 due to financial problems. The club played at the Estádio Dr. Machado de Matos which was their home since the c ...
(second).
He retired from professional football in 2003 with totals of 284 matches and 11 goals, going on to spend the rest of his career in amateur football, which included a third spell with Leça. Subsequently, he worked as a
graphic designer.
International career
Cao was part of the
Portuguese under-20 team that won the
1991 FIFA World Youth Championship, with the competition being held on home soil. In 2002 it was revealed that he had in fact been born in 1968, meaning he was crowned Youth World Champion at the age of 22.
References
External links
*
National team data
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cao
1968 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Praia
Cape Verdean footballers
Portuguese footballers
Association football midfielders
Primeira Liga players
Liga Portugal 2 players
FC Porto players
Rio Ave F.C. players
F.C. Tirsense players
Leça F.C. players
S.C. Salgueiros players
S.C. Campomaiorense players
F.C. Felgueiras players
Portugal youth international footballers
Portugal under-21 international footballers