Danilo Luís Hélio Pereira (born 9 September 1991), known as Danilo Pereira (), 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 ...

who plays as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

or centre-back for Ligue 1 club

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

and the Portugal national team. He came through Benfica's youth academy, before signing with Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

side

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

in 2010. He was consecutively loaned to various clubs, before being signed by Marítimo in 2013. In July 2015, he joined

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

for a reported fee of €4.5 million, winning two Primeira Liga titles and one

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of 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 Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

while being part of the squad that won a domestic double in 2020, making 202 official appearances for them. In October 2020, he moved to French side Paris Saint-Germain on an initial one-year loan deal; it was made permanent at the end of the season. Born in Guinea-Bissau, Pereira represented Portugal at youth level at under-18, under-19, under-20 and under-21 levels, reaching the final of the 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup. He made his senior international debut in 2015, and was part of the squads that won

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

and the 2019 UEFA Nations League Finals on home soil.

Club career

Early career

Born in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau as the oldest child of Quinta Djata, a nurse, Pereira and his family moved to Portugal when he was five. He played his youth football with three clubs in the Lisbon area, finishing his development with Benfica. Benfica subsequently decided against signing Pereira to a professional contract, and Italian side

acquired him on a free transfer. He spent the second half of the 2010–11 season on loan to

Aris Aris or ARIS may refer to: People * Aris (surname) Given name * Aris Alexandrou, Greek writer * Aris Brimanis, ice hockey player * Aris Christofellis, Greek male soprano * Aris Gavelas, Greek sprinter * Aris Howard, Former President of the Jama ...

in Greece and, upon his return to the Stadio Ennio Tardini, made his first appearance in

on 21 December 2011, coming on as a late substitute in a 3–3 home draw against Catania. Pereira was loaned again for

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, spending the campaign with

Roda Roda may refer to: Places *Stadtroda (called Roda until 1925), a town in Thuringia, Germany *Roda, Greece, a village in Corfu, Greece * Roda, Punjab, a town and Union Council of Punjab, Pakistan *Roda, Portugal, a village in Viseu district, Portu ...

in the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

and being first choice to help his team narrowly avoid relegation.

Marítimo

On 1 August 2013, Pereira returned to Portugal, signing with Marítimo. He made his Primeira Liga debut 17 days later in a 2–1 home victory over his former club Benfica, and scored his first goal on 19 December in the 2–2 home draw with

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

. He made 32 competitive appearances during the season, helping his team to a sixth-place finish to narrowly miss out on

qualification 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 ...

for the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

. Pereira played his last match for the Madeirans on 29 May 2015 in

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

of the Taça da Liga, lost 2–1 against Benfica.

Porto

On 2 July 2015, Pereira agreed to a four-year contract with

for a transfer fee of €4.5 million, the highest sale in Marítimo's history, with a buyout clause of €40 million. He scored a career-best six goals – from 33 appearances – in his first year, in a runner-up finish. In October 2016, he was named Porto's footballer of the year after winning the "Dragão de Ouro" award. Pereira was elected the Primeira Liga's midfielder of the month in September 2017, a feat he replicated in December. He suffered a calf injury during a League Cup game at

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

on 24 January 2018, going on to be sidelined for several months. In

of the

, on 25 May 2019 against Sporting, following a 2–2 draw after extra time and despite Pereira converting his attempt, Porto lost the

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

5–4. After the departure of

Héctor Herrera Héctor Miguel Herrera López (; born 19 April 1990) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Major League Soccer club Houston Dynamo and the Mexico national team. Herrera began his career with Pachuca in 2011 and sp ...

for Atlético Madrid, he became the captain. His team won the league title that season, and he opened the scoring in the 2–0 home win over Sporting that sealed the crown on 15 July 2020.

Paris Saint-Germain

On 5 October 2020, Pereira joined

on a one-year loan for a reported fee of €4 million with a conditional obligation to buy at the end of the season for €16 million. He made his debut 15 days later, in a 2–1 home loss against Manchester United in the group stage of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. His Ligue 1 bow was also that month, in the 4–0 rout of

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

also at the Parc des Princes, where he featured as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. His first goal came in the reverse fixture against the latter adversary on 27 February 2021, when he headed in a

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

from a

corner Corner may refer to: People *Corner (surname) * House of Cornaro, a noble Venetian family (''Corner'' in Venetian dialect) Places *Corner, Alabama, a community in the United States *Corner Inlet, Victoria, Australia *Corner River, a tributary of ...

(same score). PSG eventually finished second to

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

in the league. This triggered the obligation to make the move permanent, and Pereira therefore became linked to the club until 2025. On 6 February 2022, he scored a brace for the first time in his career to help his team to a 5–1 away win over Lille, and won his first league title that campaign contributing five goals.

International career

Pereira chose to represent

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

internationally. He was part of the under-20 side that finished second at the 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Colombia, playing all seven games (six complete) and scoring in the 2–0 semi-final win over

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. Pereira made his senior international debut on 31 March 2015, replacing fellow debutant

Bernardo Silva Bernardo Mota Veiga de Carvalho e Silva (; born 10 August 1994), known as Bernardo Silva or simply Bernardo, is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder, forward or a winger for club Manchester City and the ...

after 62 minutes of an eventual 0–2 friendly defeat to Cape Verde in

Estoril Estoril () is a town in the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a tourist destination, with luxury hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numerous royal families and celebrities, and has h ...

. He was also selected for the

squad by manager Fernando Santos, scoring his first goal in the last warm-up game, a 7–0 victory against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

in Lisbon on 8 June. He made five appearances for the champions in the finals in France. Having missed the 2018 FIFA World Cup due to injury, Pereira was later picked for the

2017 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup was the 10th and final edition of the FIFA Confederations Cup, a quadrennial international men's football tournament organised by FIFA. It was held in Russia, from 17 June to 2 July 2017, as a prelude to the 201 ...

Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

and the

2022 World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022; it is the first ...

. In the latter tournament, he fractured a rib in the first group fixture against

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

, taking part in no further games.

Career statistics

Club

International

''Score and results list Portugal's score first, score column indicates score after each Pereira goal.''

Honours

Porto * Primeira Liga: 2017–18, 2019–20 *

: 2019–20 Paris Saint-Germain * Ligue 1: 2021–22 *

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Trophée des Champions The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the super cups found in many other countries. His ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

Portugal U20 *

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 whe ...

runner-up: 2011 Portugal *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

: 2018–19 * FIFA Confederations Cup third place:

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

Individual * SJPF Young Player of the Month: August/September 2015 * SJPF Primeira Liga Team of the Year: 2016, 2017 * FC Porto Player of the Year – Dragão de Ouro Award: 2016 * Primeira Liga Midfielder of the Month: September 2017, December 2017 Orders * PRT Order of Prince Henry - Knight BAR

Knight of the Order of Prince Henry * POR_Ordem_do_Merito_Comendador_BAR

Commander of the Order of Merit

References

External links

* *
National team data
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pereira, Danilo 1991 births Living people Naturalised citizens of Portugal Sportspeople from Bissau Portuguese sportspeople of Bissau-Guinean descent Black Portuguese sportspeople Bissau-Guinean footballers Portuguese footballers Association football defenders Association football midfielders Association football utility players Primeira Liga players S.L. Benfica footballers C.S. Marítimo players FC Porto players Serie A players Parma Calcio 1913 players Super League Greece players Aris Thessaloniki F.C. players Eredivisie players Roda JC Kerkrade players Ligue 1 players Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players Portugal youth international footballers Portugal under-21 international footballers Portugal international footballers UEFA Euro 2016 players 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup players UEFA Euro 2020 players 2022 FIFA World Cup players UEFA European Championship-winning players UEFA Nations League-winning players Bissau-Guinean expatriate footballers Portuguese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in France Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Italy Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in France Commanders of the Order of Merit (Portugal)