Cristiano Moraes de Oliveira (born 28 September 1983), known simply as Cristiano, is a Brazilian 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 lea ...

who played as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. He spent most of his professional career in Portugal, amassing

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

totals of 135 games and 17 goals over the course of eight seasons, almost exclusively with Paços de Ferreira.

Club career

Born in

Manaus Manaus () is the List of capitals of subdivisions of Brazil, capital and largest city of the States of Brazil, Brazilian state of Amazonas (Brazilian state), Amazonas. It is the List of largest cities in Brazil, seventh-largest city in Brazil, w ...

, Amazonas, Cristiano started playing football with two local clubs,

Nacional Futebol Clube Nacional Futebol Clube, commonly referred to as Nacional, is a Brazilian professional club based in Manaus, Amazonas (Brazilian state), Amazonas founded on 13 January 1913. It competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série D, the fourth tier of Br ...

and

São Raimundo Esporte Clube (AM) São Raimundo Esporte Clube, commonly referred to as São Raimundo, is a Brazilian professional club based in Manaus, Amazonas founded on 18 November 1918. It competes in the Campeonato Amazonense, the top flight of the Amazonas state footba ...

, representing the latter on loan. In August 2005 he moved to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and joined F.C. Paços de Ferreira, being rarely used in his debut season in the

(eight appearances, all as a substitute). In the 2006–07 campaign, Cristiano contributed 26 matches – two goals, one of them in a 1–1 home draw against

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

on 17 February 2007– as Paços finished in sixth position, qualifying for the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

for the first time in their history. He continued to feature regularly for the northerners in the subsequent seasons, scoring a career-best seven goals in 2008–09. On 6 November 2009, Cristiano netted twice in the 3–0 away win over C.F. Belenenses. In the following

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

, he moved to

PAOK FC PAOK FC (, ), short for "Pan-Thessalonian Sports club, Athletic Club of Constantinople, Constantinopolitans" (), and commonly known as PAOK Thessaloniki, PAOK Salonika or simply PAOK, is a Greek professional Association football, football cl ...

from

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

on a two-and-a-half-year contract; after only a few games, he suffered an

anterior cruciate ligament injury An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during in ...

, being sidelined for about six months. Cristiano returned to Portugal in late January 2011, joining Sporting as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

and reuniting with his former Paços de Ferreira manager Paulo Sérgio. In June, having made just five competitive appearances, he was released and signed a two-year deal with S.C. Beira-Mar shortly after.

References

External links

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CBF data
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cristiano 1983 births Living people Sportspeople from Manaus Brazilian men's footballers Footballers from Amazonas (Brazilian state) Men's association football midfielders Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Campeonato Brasileiro Série C players Campeonato Brasileiro Série D players Nacional Futebol Clube players São Raimundo Esporte Clube (AM) footballers Criciúma Esporte Clube players Primeira Liga players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Sporting CP footballers S.C. Beira-Mar players Vitória F.C. players Super League Greece players PAOK FC players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Greece 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen