Flávio Miguel Magalhães Sousa Meireles (born 3 October 1976) is a Portuguese 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 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 boundarie ...

, and is the

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

Vitória de Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória (b ...

. Most of his 16-year professional career was associated with

, which he represented in three different spells, appearing in nearly 250 official games.

Club career

Born in

Ribeira de Pena Ribeira de Pena () is a municipality in the Vila Real District, in Norte Region in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 6,544,Vila Real District The District of Vila Real ( pt, Distrito de Vila Real ) is a district of northern Portugal. With an area of , the district is located east of the port city of Porto and north of the Douro River. Vila Real has always belonged to the historical ...

, Meireles began his professional career with

, having no impact whatsoever at the club in his first spell and moving to the lower leagues in 1996, first with

Moreirense FC Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, in Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joa ...

(where he also appeared very rarely, in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

) then

AD Fafe Associação Desportiva de Fafe (abbreviated as AD Fafe) is a Portuguese football club based in Fafe in the district of Braga in northern Portugal. Background AD Fafe currently plays in the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores – Série A whi ...

. Meireles returned to Vitória in 1999, meeting the same fate and quickly moving again to Fafe. The following season he switched to another former side, Moreirense, being instrumental as they – also based in

Guimarães Guimarães () is a city and municipality located in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga. Its historic town centre has been listed as a UNESCWorld Heritage Sitesince 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved and a ...

– promoted from the third level to the

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, ...

in only two years, under manager Manuel Machado. For the 2003–04 campaign, Meireles re-joined Vitória de Guimarães for a third spell. His first appearance was on 18 August 2003, when he played the entire 1–0 home win over

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. M ...

. At the Minho team, he was now an automatic first-choice and

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

from the start, helping them achieve promotion in

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 ...

and

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 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 the following season, with the player appearing in all games but one and scoring three goals; in two different stints at the '' Estádio D. Afonso Henriques'', he was again coached by Machado. On 22 May 2011, after appearing 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

Portuguese Cup 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 ...

against

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 ...

, 34-year-old Meireles announced his immediate retirement from football. Shortly after, he was appointed as a coach at the club. In May 2012, still with Vitória, Meireles was appointed new

. In remained in the position for several years.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Meireles, Flavio 1976 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Vitória S.C. players Moreirense F.C. players AD Fafe players Footballers from Vila Real District