Francisco António Lucas Vital (born 27 June 1954) is a Portuguese former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Playing career

Born in Braga, Vital spent all of his early career 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 ...

, mainly with

G.D. Riopele Grupo Desportivo Riopele was a Portuguese football club founded in 1958 from Vila Nova de Famalicão, Braga. It only currently maintains the junior divisions open to focus on youth football development. The club have played once in the Primeira ...

. In 1977 he 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 ...

, going on to be irregularly played by 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, ...

club during his two-and-a-half-season spell and winning two national championships, contributing with a career-best 21 games and five goals in the 1978–79 edition. In January 1980, Vital moved to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

with

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

– his only abroad experience – returning to his country in the summer to join S.L. Benfica, with whom he won another league as well as one

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 ...

and one domestic Supercup. After spending the 1981–82 campaign with

Boavista F.C. 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 ...

he returned to the second level, where he remained until his retirement at the age of 33, mostly with

F.C. Vizela Futebol Clube de Vizela is a Portuguese football club based in Vizela, Braga District. Founded in 1939, it currently plays in the Liga Portugal Bwin, holding home games at the Estádio do Futebol Clube de Vizela, with a capacity for 6,100 spect ...

. As a Porto player, Vital appeared once for

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 ...

, featuring 45 minutes in a 4–0 home win against

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

for the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by t ...

qualifiers and scoring the third.

Coaching career

Vital worked almost exclusively in the Portuguese lower leagues, his first stint being precisely with his last club Vizela. In 1997–98, his only season in the top tier, he was one of four managers for Sporting CP – having started as an assistant with the team – winning one match, drawing two and losing one as the ''Lions'' went on to finish in fourth position. In the second part of the 2000s, Vital coached mainly in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, helping

Đồng Tâm Long An F.C. Long An Football Club ( vi, Câu lạc bộ Bóng đá Long An), simply known as Long An, is a professional football club, based in Long An, Vietnam, that competes in the V.League 2. The team is playing at Long An Stadium. New name CLB Long ...

return to the V-League in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

.Sports news in brief – April 23
; Baomoi, 23 April 2012

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vital, Francisco 1954 births Living people Sportspeople from Braga Portuguese footballers Association football forwards Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players F.C. Famalicão players G.D. Riopele players FC Porto players S.L. Benfica footballers Boavista F.C. players S.C. Farense players C.F. Os Belenenses players F.C. Tirsense players F.C. Vizela players La Liga players Real Betis players Portugal youth international footballers Portugal under-21 international footballers Portugal international footballers Portuguese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese football managers Primeira Liga managers Liga Portugal 2 managers F.C. Famalicão managers Sporting CP managers F.C. Penafiel managers Associação Naval 1º de Maio managers G.D. Chaves managers Portuguese expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Vietnam Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Vietnam