Fernando Jorge Lima de Moraes (born 21 January 1980), commonly referred to as Fernando, is a retired

soccer player 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 last played for

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

in the

Victorian Premier League The National Premier Leagues Victoria, commonly known as NPL Victoria, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer lea ...

. Born in Brazil, he played for the

Australia national futsal team The Australia National Futsal Team represents Australia in men's international futsal. The team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is currently a member of both the Asian Football Confederat ...

Career

Fernando de Moraes initially specialised in

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hardcourt, hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and Indoor soccer, indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players ...

while playing in Brazil, and played his first match in the outdoor version of the game at the age of 21. He first played for

PSB Palestra São Bernado PSB may refer to: Organisations * Belgian Socialist Party () * Brazilian Socialist Party () * Parti Sarawak Bersatu * Brunei History Centre (), a government body in Brunei * Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, an annual scientific meeting * Par ...

in Brazil before moving to Australia (where his sister lives) to play for

South Melbourne FC South Melbourne Football Club is an Australian semi-professional Association football, soccer club based in suburb of Albert Park, Victoria, Albert Park, in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The club currently competes in the National P ...

, having seen them play at the 2000 FIFA Club World Championship. He joined the team for the 2005

season. In 2006, he left the club to undertake an unsuccessful 4-week trial at

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

club Egaleo FC, after which he returned to Australia and played a vital role in securing the championship for South Melbourne as their highest scoring player (with a total of 12). He was signed by

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

club

New Zealand Knights FC New Zealand Knights Football Club (formed from the Football Kingz Football Club in 2004) were the only professional association football club in New Zealand before they became defunct. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, they played in the A-Leagu ...

shortly after the championship victory on a short-term contract, for a fee of £90,000 (€100,000), that was extended several times, but did not feature in the Knights' line-up and was soon relegated to the bench. He returned to South Melbourne at the conclusion of the Knights' season and joined the squad for pre-season matches, eventually signing a new 2-year contract. One of his most important goals for South Melbourne came during the

2010 Singapore Cup The 2010 Singapore Cup (known as the RHB Singapore Cup for sponsorship reasons) started on 24 May 2010. It was the 13th staging of the annual Singapore Cup soccer tournament. 12 S.League clubs and 4 invited foreign teams played in this edition. ...

when his goal put South Melbourne 2-1 up against

Thai Premier League The Thai League 1 ( th, ไทยลีก 1), often referred to as T1, is the top level of the Thai football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Thai League 2. Seasons run from August ...

champions

Bangkok Glass BG Pathum United Football Club ( th, สโมสรฟุตบอลบีจี ปทุม ยูไนเต็ด) is a Thai professional football club based in Pathum Thani province and is managed by BG Sports Company Limited which is a ...

, however it would not be enough, as Bangkok would ultimately tie 3-3 allowing them to go through on aggregate, knocking out South Melbourne in the process. In January 2014, de Moraes officially retired from playing football.

Honours

With

: * Victorian Premier League Championship: 2006 * Hellenic Cup: 2007, 2009 * Theo Marmaras Medal: 2006, 2010 * Club Golden Boot: 2006, 2008, 2010 * Individual * Victorian Premier League player of the year: 2010 * Hummel F-League Golden Boot: 2013 * Jimmy Rooney Medal: 2006 * Theo Marmaras Medal: 2006, 2010 With North Melbourne Futsal Club: *

Futsal Oz V-League Premiership Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is the ...

: 2011 With Vic Vipers Futsal Club: * Hummel F-League Champions: 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moraes, Fernando de 1980 births Living people Footballers from São Paulo Australian soccer players Australian men's futsal players Brazilian footballers Brazilian emigrants to Australia Brazilian men's futsal players Brazilian expatriate footballers New Zealand Knights FC players South Melbourne FC players A-League Men players Expatriate association footballers in New Zealand Naturalised citizens of Australia Australian people of Brazilian descent Naturalised soccer players of Australia Association football midfielders