Fernando João Lobo Aguiar (born 18 March 1972) is a Canadian former 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 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 ...

. He was arguably Canada's second most successful player to have competed in Portugal, after

Alex Bunbury Alexander Bunbury (born 18 June 1967) is a Canadian former professional soccer player who played as a striker. He played mainly for Marítimo in Portugal during a 13-year professional career, and represented the Canadian national team during ...

, and was one of about a dozen

Portuguese Canadian Portuguese Canadians ( pt, luso-canadianos, italic=no) are Canadian citizens of full or partial Portuguese heritage or people who migrated from Portugal and reside in Canada. According to the 2016 Census, there were 482,610 or 1.4% of Canadians ...

s to have played football in the country. He amassed

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 138 matches and 13 goals over six seasons, appearing in the competition for Marítimo,

Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar () is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth national level, having gained promotion by winning the Aveiro FA First Division 2018/19 ...

, Benfica,

União de 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. ...

and

Penafiel Penafiel ( or () is a municipality and former bishopric (now a Latin Catholic titular see) in the northern Portuguese district of Porto. Capital of the Tâmega Subregion, the population was 72,265 in 2011, in an area of . History The region ...

; he added 195/25 in the Segunda Liga. Aguiar represented

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

internationally.

Club career

Born in Chaves, Aguiar moved to

at an early age, beginning his career in the

Canadian Soccer League The Canadian Soccer League (CSL; french: Ligue canadienne de soccer — LCS) is a semi-professional league for Canadian soccer clubs primarily located in the province of Ontario, and claims the history of the Canadian National Soccer League (C ...

where he represented hometown's

Toronto Blizzard Toronto Blizzard may refer to: *Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984), the original soccer club, a franchise of the North American Soccer League *Toronto Blizzard (1986–1993), the later club and franchise of the Canadian Soccer League *Toronto Azzurri B ...

. Although the league disbanded in 1992, he remained with the team for their only season in the

American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. It ...

. Dubbed ''

RoboCop ''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferre ...

'' due to his powerful frame, Aguiar started competing in Europe in 1994, with Portuguese

club

C.S. Marítimo Club Sport Marítimo MH M, commonly known as Marítimo ( locally ), is a Portuguese sports club founded in Funchal, Madeira, in 1910. Marítimo is best known for its football team playing in Portugal's top-flight competition, the Primeira Lig ...

. He had trouble making the lineups and subsequently dropped down to 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 ...

where he spent four of the next five years, playing for

C.D. Nacional Clube Desportivo Nacional, commonly known as Nacional and sometimes Nacional da Madeira (), is a Portuguese football club based in Funchal, on the island of Madeira. Founded on 8 December 1910, it currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, Portug ...

F.C. Maia Futebol Clube da Maia is a Portuguese football club based in Maia, Greater Metropolitan Area of Porto. Founded on 4 April 1954, it currently plays in the Porto Regional League, holding home matches at the Estádio Professor Doutor Vieira de Carv ...

and

S.C. Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar () is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth national level, having gained promotion by winning the Aveiro FA First Division 2018/19 ...

, helping the latter achieve promotion in 2000 and subsequently stay in the top flight. Aguiar's good form was noticed by

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 ...

, for whom he signed a six-month contract in December 2001, going on to play a somewhat important defensive role. On 25 January 2004 he scored the only goal in a 1–0 away win against

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 ...

( in the 90th minute), assisted by

Miklós Fehér Miklós "Miki" Fehér (; 20 July 1979 – 25 January 2004) was a Hungarian professional footballer who played as a striker. He spent most of his nine-year career in Portugal, representing four clubs and amassing Primeira Liga totals of 80 game ...

who would die in the hospital just hours later; he also helped the

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 ...

-based side capture the 2004

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 ...

. After his cup-winning exploits, Aguiar transferred to

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

club

Landskrona BoIS Landskrona Boll och Idrottsällskap ( en, Landskrona Ball and Sports Society, locally referred to as BoIS) is a Swedish professional football club located in Landskrona, Scania, which currently plays in Superettan, the second league tier of fo ...

. However, an injury and his high wages ruined the move, and he left after only a few months for F.C. Penafiel. In August 2005 he joined division two's

Gondomar SC Gondomar Sport Club is a Portuguese football club based in Gondomar, Porto District. Founded on 1 May 1921, it currently plays in the fourth-tier Campeonato de Portugal, holding home games at '' Estádio de São Miguel'', with a capacity of 2.4 ...

, representing it for four years and suffering relegation in

the last The Last may refer to: *The Last (band) The Last is an American, Los Angeles-based, early pop/punk band, formed in 1976 by Joe Nolte with high school bandmates Vitus Matare and Dave Harbison. By 1978 the band included three brothers: Joe (guitar ...

, after which he was released at age 37, retiring shortly after. On 13 November 2013, more than four years after his last match, Aguiar came out of retirement, moving to

Pedrouços A.C. Pedrouços Atlético Clube is a Portugal, Portuguese football club from Pedrouços, Maia, Porto, Portugal, Maia. It was founded on October 2, 1929 from the merging of some local neighborhood clubs, and currently plays at regional level, disputing ...

in the Porto regional divisions.

International career

Aguiar possessed both Portuguese and Canadian citizenship, but having grown up in Canada, he eventually featured for its national team. Ironically, he made his debut in a January 1995

SkyDome Cup The SkyDome Cup was a soccer tournament played in late January 1995 in the ''SkyDome'' stadium (now '' Rogers Centre'') between hosts Canada, then European champions Denmark, and Portugal. As the tournament was played in a crucial part of the Eur ...

match against

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 ...

, and went on to earn a total of 13

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

scoring no goals. Aguiar represented Canada in four

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

matches. His final international appearance was in July 1999, with

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

Honours

Benfica *

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 ...

: 2003–04

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aguiar, Fernando 1972 births Living people People from Chaves, Portugal Canadian people of Portuguese descent Portuguese emigrants to Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada Soccer people from Ontario Portuguese footballers Canadian soccer players Association football midfielders Canadian Soccer League (1987–1992) players American Professional Soccer League players Toronto Blizzard (1986–1993) players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players C.S. Marítimo players C.D. Nacional players F.C. Maia players S.C. Beira-Mar players S.L. Benfica footballers U.D. Leiria players F.C. Penafiel players Gondomar S.C. players Allsvenskan players Landskrona BoIS players Canada men's under-23 international soccer players Canada men's international soccer players Portuguese expatriate footballers Canadian expatriate soccer players Expatriate footballers in Sweden Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Sportspeople from Vila Real District