Vanderlei Fernandes Silva (born 14 July 1975), known as Derlei, is a Brazilian former

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 a striker. He spent most of his 16-year professional career in Portugal (one full decade), having represented all three most important clubs in the country and 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 187 matches and 70 goals. With

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 ...

, Derlei won eight major titles including two leagues, one Champions League and one

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

Club career

Born in

São Bernardo do Campo São Bernardo do Campo () is a Brazilian Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the state of São Paulo. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo. The population is 844,483 (2020 est.) in an area of . History The city was founded b ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

, Derlei began playing in the lower levels of Brazilian football, but joined Portugal's

U.D. Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria, commonly known as União de Leiria (), is a Portuguese football club based in Leiria, central Portugal. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home matches at Estádio Dr. ...

in 1999, going on to appear in 92 competitive games for the club. In his last season, as they overachieved for a final seventh place in the

led by young manager

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix GOIH (; born 26 January 1963), is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Italian Serie A club Roma. Once dubbed "The Special One" by the British ...

, he scored 21 goals. Derlei signed with

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

in the summer of 2002, playing an important part in a successful squad that was also managed by Mourinho. He was one of the top scorers in a side that conquered the

and

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 competit ...

in consecutive seasons – he netted twice in the

2003 UEFA Cup final The 2003 UEFA Cup Final was played on 21 May 2003 between Celtic of Scotland and Porto of Portugal. Porto won the match 3–2 in extra time thanks to a goal from Derlei. This was also the first game to use the silver goal rule, although it did no ...

against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

(adding another brace in the 4–1 semi-final win over S.S. Lazio)– being nicknamed ''"Ninja"'' while playing for the northern side; the following campaign, as he was leading the domestic goalscoring chart, he suffered a severe knee injury which rendered him unavailable for several months. Derlei was able to come back in time for the UEFA Champions League semi-final against Deportivo La Caruna, where he scored a penalty kick in the second half of the second leg match at the Riazor in Spain which saw FC Porto through to the final 1-0 on aggregate. Derlei would be the starting striker as FC Porto went on to defeat Monaco 3-0 to win the 2003-2004 UEFA Champions League. In January 2005, after disciplinary problems related to his lateness in arriving from the winter break, Derlei was sold to

FC Dynamo Moscow FC Dynamo Moscow (''FC Dynamo Moskva'', russian: Дина́мо Москва́ ) is a Russian football club based in Moscow. Dynamo returned to the Russian Premier League for the 2017–18 season after one season in the second-tier Russian Footb ...

for €7 million, being granted

Portuguese citizenship Portuguese nationality law details the conditions by which a person is a national of Portugal. The primary law governing nationality regulations is the Nationality Act, which came into force on 3 October 1981. Portugal is a member state of th ...

shortly after. After two years in

Russian football Association football is the most popular sport in Russia, since beating ice hockey by a huge margin. Men's football is overseen by the Russian Football Union, having the Russian Premier League as the first tier of the Russian football league s ...

where he was always one of the top five scorers, he moved to

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional association football, football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system, Portuguese footba ...

on loan in January 2007. He played his first league match for the latter on 2 February, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 0–0 home draw with

Boavista FC Boavista Futebol Clube, commonly known as Boavista (), is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Porto. Founded on 1 August 1903 by British entrepreneurs and Portuguese textile workers (thus the "FC" being appended – the British way as oppos ...

. Derlei left for

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

rivals

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 ...

in late June 2007, signing a one-year deal with the option for another after being freed from his two-year contract with Dynamo Moscow – he was, therefore, one of the few players to have represented the Big Three of Portugal. He spent most of 2007–08 on the sidelines, with another serious knee injury. Derlei made a comeback to competition when, on 16 April 2008, he entered the field for

Leandro Romagnoli Leandro Atilio Romagnoli (born 17 March 1981) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played mainly as an attacking midfielder. His thin build, short stature and playing style were reminiscent of compatriot Osvaldo Ardiles. What the ...

in the 61st minute during the semi-final of the

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 seaso ...

against Benfica, scoring only 18 minutes later to make it 3–2 to Sporting, in a match which eventually ended with a 5–3 win as the team went on to win the tournament against another former acquaintance of the player, Porto. In his second season, Derlei fought with

Hélder Postiga Hélder Manuel Marques Postiga (; born 2 August 1982) is a Portuguese retired professional footballer who played as a striker. After beginning at Porto, where he won eight items of silverware along the way, he amassed Primeira Liga totals o ...

for a chance to play alongside

Liédson Liédson da Silva Muniz (born 17 December 1977), known simply as Liédson, is a former footballer who played as a striker. Nicknamed ''Levezinho'' ("Slender one") due to his light frame (63 kg),

, and scored some goals including an important one in a 1–0 home victory over

FC Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was ...

in the Champions League, which sealed Sporting's group stage qualification on 4 November 2008. At the end of the campaign, he declined the club's offer for a contract extension on the grounds the compensation was insufficient, thus being made a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player 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 contract at present but who is a ...

. On 27 August 2009, 34-year-old Derlei joined Vitória on a one-year deal. He made his competitive debut on 13 September in a match against

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian"), and also known as Brasileirão Assaí due to sponsorship with Assaí Atacadista, is a Br ...

leaders

Palmeiras Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with around ...

; having taken the pitch in the second half, he scored the 3–2 winner; Derlei transferred to modest Madureira shortly after, returning to a team he had represented more than one decade prior.

Club statistics

Honours

América-RN *

Campeonato Potiguar The Campeonato Potiguar is the football league of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Format First Division First stage: standard round-robin, in which all teams play each other once. Second stage: home-and-away playoffs between the to ...

: 1996 Porto *

: 2002–03, 2003–04 *

: 2002–03 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese football match played since 1979 between the winners of the Portuguese League (Primeira Liga) and Portuguese ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

: 2003–04 *

: 2002–03 * Intercontinental Cup:

Sporting *

: 2007–08 *

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual football club competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the Primeira Liga and LigaPro, the top two tier ...

runner-up: 2007–08, 2008–09 Individual *

Top Scorer: 2002–03 *

SJPF Player of the Month The SJPF Player of the Month (often called Portuguese League Player of the Month) is an association football award that recognizes the best Primeira Liga, Portuguese League player each month of the season and is conceived by the SJPF (syndicate of ...

: October 2004

References

External links

* *
PortuGOAL profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Derlei 1975 births Living people People from São Bernardo do Campo Brazilian people of Portuguese descent Brazilian footballers Association football forwards Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série C players América Futebol Clube (RN) players Guarani FC players Madureira Esporte Clube players Esporte Clube Vitória players Primeira Liga players U.D. Leiria players FC Porto players UEFA Cup winning players S.L. Benfica footballers Sporting CP footballers Russian Premier League players FC Dynamo Moscow players UEFA Champions League winning players Brazilian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Russia Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Footballers from São Paulo (state)