Cristiano Rocha Canedo Roland (born 4 October 1976), known simply as Cristiano, is a retired Brazilian

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 lea ...

who played as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. He is currently the head coach of Vietnam U17. He started at Grêmio and moved to

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

in 1996, where he won the Brasileirão in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

. In 1998, he signed with Beira-Mar winning a Portuguese Cup in 1999 and transferring to Benfica in 2002, where he won another Portuguese Cup in 2004. In 2007, he moved to the V-League, playing for Hanoi T&T on two different spells, winning three major titles.

Playing career

Born in

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, ; , ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian Federative units of Brazil, state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of roughly 1.4 million inhabitants (2022) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, 11th-most p ...

, Cristiano started at Grêmio in 1994, and spending two years in their youth system. In 1996, he moved to

and helped them win the Brasileirão in 1997. After a short period back at Grêmio, Cristiano moved abroad and joined Beira-Mar in 1998. He was sparsely used in his first year, that ended with mixed results: relegation in the Primeira Divisão and the conquering the Portuguese Cup. His influence grew in the following three seasons and he became known as free-kick specialist. In 2001–02, Cristiano scored three league goals, two of them against

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

, and in both times, Beira-Mar won. In June 2002, Benfica signed him on a four-year deal, with Diogo Luís and

Toni Toni, Toñi or Tóni is a unisex given name used in several European countries as well as among individuals with ancestry from these countries outside Europe. In Spanish language, Spanish, Italian language, Italian, Croatian language, Croatian an ...

going in the other direction on loan deals. From early on, Cristiano struggled with competition from Ricardo Rocha, and on occasions, Cabral. He only made his debut on 3 November 2002 against Santa Clara, but with the arrival of José Antonio Camacho, he began playing much more frequently, finishing the season with 14 appearances. The following

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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

, Cristiano was set to reunite with Jesualdo Ferreira at

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

, but the loan deal fell through. Still, Cristiano started 8 league games in the first half of the season, until the arrival of Fyssas in January. From then on, he became a bench player and never returned to the starting eleven. In May, he added his second trophy in Portugal, after winning the

2003–04 Taça de Portugal The 2003–04 Taça de Portugal was the 64th edition of the Portuguese Association football, football knockout tournament organized by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). This edition of the Taça de Portugal began on 7 September 2003, and co ...

. In July 2004, he was loaned to Belenenses for one year. Initially, he was an undisputed starter playing six games in a row, but an injury in late October, cause him to lost his place to Cabral and José Sousa. In 2005–06, Cristiano could not find a team and was placed in Benfica B, but mutually terminated his contract on late September 2005. After Benfica, he spent some time at Juventude in the Série A, before moving to Atromitos in the Greek league. He played for Hanoi T&T in 2007 and returned to Beira-Mar in July 2008, playing 26 games in the Liga de Honra. In 2009, Cristiano moved back to Hanoi T&T and won the league in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, retiring in 2013. In August 2015, he came out of retirement for a third stint at Beira-Mar, after they were relegated to the Aveiro FA's second division.

Managerial career

Cristiano began his coaching career at the

youth team In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or Sports league, league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team (a ...

of his former club

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

. He led Hanoi's U-17 side to win the 2024 Vietnamese U-17 Championship. Shortly after the triumph, he became the head coach of Vietnam U17 and led the team to qualify for the 2025 AFC U-17 Asian Cup. On 3 December 2024, Cristiano was appointed as the head coach of V.League 1 side SHB Da Nang. This was the first professional club that he led in his managerial career. But he left the coach due to him became a technical director.

Honours

;Vasco da Gama * Brasileirão:

;Beira-Mar *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

: 1998–99 ;Benfica *

: 2003–04 ;Hanoi T&T * V-League:

Vietnamese Super Cup Vietnamese National Football Super Cup (), also called the Thaco National Football Super Cup due to sponsorship reasons, is Vietnamese football's annual match contested between the champions of the previous V.League 1 season and the holders of th ...

: 2010

References

General * Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Cristiano 1976 births Living people Footballers from Porto Alegre Brazilian men's footballers Brazilian football managers CR Vasco da Gama players Grêmio FBPA players Esporte Clube Juventude players S.L. Benfica footballers S.L. Benfica B players C.F. Os Belenenses players S.C. Beira-Mar players Atromitos F.C. players Hanoi FC players V.League 2 players V.League 1 players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Vietnam Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Vietnam Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Men's association football defenders