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 le ...

who played as an attacking midfielder. He spent most of his professional career in Portugal, amassing

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, ...

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

Paços de Ferreira Paços de Ferreira () is a city in the Porto District, in the north of Portugal. The population of the city in 2011 was 7491, while its municipality had 56,340 inhabitants, in an area of 70.99 km². Sometimes referred to as the ''Capital do ...

Club career

Born in

Manaus Manaus () is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. It is the seventh-largest city in Brazil, with an estimated 2020 population of 2,219,580 distributed over a land area of about . Located at the east center of the s ...

, Amazonas, Cristiano started playing football with two local clubs, Nacional Futebol Clube 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 Second Division, the second tier of the Amazon ...

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

F.C. Paços de Ferreira Futebol Clube Paços de Ferreira () is a Portuguese football club based in Paços de Ferreira, Porto district. Founded in 1950, the club competes in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at the 9,077-seater Estádio da Mata Real, a municipal stadi ...

, being rarely used in his debut season in the

(eight appearances, all as a substitute). In the 2006–07 campaign, Cristiano contributed with 26 matches – two goals, one of them in a 1–1 home draw against Sporting CP on 17 February 2007– as Paços finished in sixth position,

qualifying Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

to the UEFA Cup for the first time in the club's history. He continued to feature regularly for the northerners in the following years, scoring a career-best seven goals in 2008–09. On 6 November 2009, Cristiano netted twice as Paços won 3–0 at

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

. Shortly after, in the following January transfer window, he moved to PAOK FC in Greece, signing 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 inju ...

, being sidelined for about six months. Cristiano returned to Portugal in late January 2011, joining Sporting as a free agent and reuniting with former Paços de Ferreira manager Paulo Sérgio. In June, after just five competitive appearances, he was released and signed a two-year deal with S.C. Beira-Mar the following month.

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CBF data
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cristiano 1983 births Living people People from Manaus Brazilian footballers 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 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 footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Greece Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Sportspeople from Amazonas (Brazilian state)