Daniel Ricardo da Silva Soares (born 30 January 1982), commonly known as Dani, 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 for F.C. Maia as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Club career

Portugal

Dani started playing football for F.C. Vizela, located near his birthcity of

Felgueiras Felgueiras () is a municipality in Porto District, Portugal. The current mayor is Nuno Fonseca. There are two cities located in the municipality: Felgueiras (city status received on 13 July 1990) and Lixa. The population in 2011 was 58,065, in a ...

. He remained 14 years with the club his youth spell accounted for, playing his first four seasons as a senior in the third division, the latter ending in league conquest and promotion to the second level. For the 2006–07 campaign, Dani moved to the

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 ...

with F.C. Paços de Ferreira, making his debut in the competition on 27 August 2006 in a 1–2 away loss against S.C. Braga (90 minutes played). He started in all his league appearances during his short tenure.

Cluj

During the 2007 winter

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 ...

, Dani signed a four-and-a-half-year contract with

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 ...

in Romania. He scored his first

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 ...

goal more than one year later, in a 1–1 draw at

FC Unirea Urziceni Fotbal Club Unirea Urziceni, commonly known as Unirea Urziceni (), was a Romanian professional Association football, football Club (organization), club based in Urziceni, Ialomița County. Unirea became Divizia A Final Tables, national champions ...

. Dani finished his first full season with 29 games as the team won the national championship, going on to be an important midfield unit in the conquest of seven major titles, including three consecutive Romanian Cups.

Greece

On 31 August 2010, Dani agreed to a two-year deal at Iraklis Thessaloniki F.C. of the

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

. He made his competitive debut for his new club on 11 September, in a 1–1 away draw to Atromitos FC. He scored his first league goal in the 19th round of the season, opening the score against AEK Athens F.C. in an eventual 2–0 win for the hosts. In late July 2011, Dani joined fellow league side Skoda Xanthi FC.

Honours

Vizela *

Portuguese Second Division Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

: 2004–05 CFR Cluj *

: 2007–08, 2009–10 *

Cupa României The Cupa României () is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. It is the Romania ...

: 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10 *

Supercupa României The Supercupa României () is a Romanian football (soccer), football championship contested by the winners of the Liga I and the Cupa României. It is usually played at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. The competition started off in 1994 Supe ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

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 ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dani 1982 births Living people People from Felgueiras Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players F.C. Vizela players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Vitória F.C. players F.C. Lixa players Liga I players CFR Cluj players Super League Greece players Iraklis F.C. (Thessaloniki) players Xanthi F.C. players F.C. Maia players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Romania Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Footballers from Porto District 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen