Cristiano Pereira Figueiredo (born 29 November 1990), known simply as Cristiano, is a Portuguese professional

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 plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for

Liga Portugal 2 The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Pr ...

club Felgueiras. He played 80

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 ...

games for

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 ...

, Académica, Belenenses and Vitória de Setúbal, while also representing three teams in Romania and having brief spells in Spain, Greece and Bulgaria.

Club career

Born in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, Germany to Portuguese parents, Cristiano started playing youth football with Académico de Viseu FC, finishing his development with S.C. Braga. He spent his first two years as a senior as the latter's third choice, also being loaned to F.C. Vizela who acted as the

farm team In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a Team sport, team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any s ...

. Cristiano was signed by

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol, S. A. D. (; ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF or simply Valencia, is a Spanish professional Association football, football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top tier of the Spani ...

from Spain on 24 July 2011, being assigned to the B side in the

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

. He appeared in just five games during his only season. In summer 2012, Cristiano returned to Portugal and Braga, being again third string with the main squad and competing with the re-created reserves in the Segunda Liga. He made his debut as a professional on 11 August, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–2 away draw against S.L. Benfica B. For the 2014–15 campaign, Cristiano went on loan to Académica de Coimbra of the

. He appeared in 28 games in all competitions, helping his team narrowly avoid relegation. On 5 January 2016, having been deemed surplus to requirements by manager Paulo Fonseca as several other Portuguese players, Cristiano signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with Greek club Panetolikos FC. He returned to his country one year later, going on to represent

C.F. Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses (), commonly known as Os Belenenses or simply 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 19,856 ...

and Vitória de Setúbal in the top tier. Cristiano joined FC Hermannstadt on 4 July 2019. Two years later, he agreed to a three-year deal at

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

also from the Romanian

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

. However, in January 2022 the

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 ...

signed with

FC Dinamo București FC Dinamo București, commonly known as Dinamo București () or simply Dinamo, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in Bucharest that competes in the Liga I. Founded in 1948 as the team of the Ministry of Inter ...

still in that country and league. In January 2023, Cristiano moved to

FC Spartak Varna FC Spartak Varna () is a Bulgarian association football club based in Varna, Bulgaria, Varna, which currently competes in the First Professional Football League (Bulgaria), First League, the top level of Bulgarian football league system. Spartak ...

of the

First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) The First Professional Football League (), commonly known as Parva Liga or Bulgarian First League (currently known as the efbet League for sponsorship reasons), is a professional association football league in Bulgaria and the highest level of t ...

. Twelve months later, he joined FC Košice of the

Slovak First Football League The Slovak First Football League (), officially known as Niké liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Slovakia and the highest level of the Slovak football league system. It was formed in 1993 following th ...

on a one-and-a-half-year contract.

International career

Cristiano won 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. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for the Portugal under-21 side on 9 February 2011, playing the second half of a 3–1 friendly win over

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Cartaxo Cartaxo () is a concelho, municipality in the district of Santarém (district), Santarém in continental Portugal. The population in 2011 was 24,462, in an area of 158.17 km2. The urbanized centre of Cartaxo had a population of 9,507 in 2001. ...

Personal life

Cristiano's younger brother,

Tobias Tobias is the transliteration of the , which is a Graecisation of the Hebrew biblical name . With the biblical Book of Tobit being present in the Deuterocanonical books and Biblical apocrypha, Tobias is a popular male given name for both Chri ...

, is also a footballer. A defender, he played youth football at

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,

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cristiano 1990 births Living people German people of Portuguese descent 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Munich Men's association football goalkeepers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players F.C. Vizela players S.C. Braga B players S.C. Braga players Académica de Coimbra (football) players C.F. Os Belenenses players Vitória F.C. players F.C. Felgueiras (2006) players Segunda División B players Valencia CF Mestalla footballers Super League Greece players Panetolikos F.C. players Liga I players FC Hermannstadt players CFR Cluj players FC Dinamo București players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players FC Spartak Varna players Slovak First Football League players FC Košice (2018) players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Slovakia Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Romania Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Slovakia