Henrique Pereira Araújo (; born 19 January 2002) is a Portuguese 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 lea ...

who plays as a striker for

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

club

F.C. Arouca Futebol Clube de Arouca () is a professional Association football, football club based in the Porto metropolitan area. Founded in 1951, the club plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Estádio Municipal de Arouca, with a 5,600-seat capac ...

, on loan from Benfica.

Club career

Early career

Born in

Funchal Funchal () officially Funchal City (), is the capital, largest city and a Municipality (Portugal), municipality in Portugal's Madeira, Autonomous Region of Madeira, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The city has a population of 105,795, making it ...

, the capital of the Portuguese island of

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

, Araújo started his football career in the youth ranks of local side Andorinha in 2008, and later moved to Marítimo's in 2011. In 2018, aged 16, he went on a week trial with Benfica, who signed him and he subsequently moved from Madeira to

Seixal Seixal () is a Portugal, Portuguese city and municipality, located in the district of Setúbal District, Setúbal, in the metropolitan area of Lisbon region, Lisbon. Its population includes 184,269 inhabitants (2011), in an area of that includes ...

, near Lisbon, to join Benfica's youth academy, despite also having trained with

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

, who declined signing him.

Benfica

2020–22: Rise to the first team and UEFA Youth League

On 5 March 2019, Araújo signed his first professional contract with

Benfica B Sport Lisboa e Benfica "B" (), commonly known as Benfica B, is a Portuguese professional football team based in Seixal. Founded in 1999, dissolved in 2006, and restarted in 2012, it is the reserve team of Portuguese club S.L. Benfica. They play ...

. Araújo made his professional debut with Benfica B in a 1–0

LigaPro The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier ...

loss to

Estoril Estoril () is a town in the civil parish of Cascais e Estoril of the Portuguese Municipality of Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a popular tourist destination, with hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numero ...

on 4 October 2020. Following a prolific goalscoring form for the B team, to which he scored ten goals and provided three assist, Araújo was promoted to Benfica's

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

by interim manager Nélson Veríssimo, making his debut on 2 February 2022, in a 2–1 home loss to

Gil Vicente Gil Vicente (; c. 1465c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often refe ...

in the

. He scored his first goal for the club on 11 March in a 1–1 home draw to

Vizela Vizela () is a municipality in the Braga District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 23,736, in an area of 24.70 km². The present mayor is Vitor Hugo Salgado, elected as an independent. The municipal holiday is March 19. History In Au ...

. During that season, Araújo played in the

2021–22 UEFA Youth League The 2021–22 UEFA Youth League was the eighth season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA. Real Madrid, having won the title in 2019–20, were the title holders, since the 2020–21 edition w ...

, scoring a hat-trick in the final on 25 April, in a 6–0 win over Red Bull Salzburg to help Benfica win their first Youth League title, and their first title in European football since the

1961–62 European Cup The 1961–62 European Cup was the seventh season of the European Cup, UEFA's premier club football tournament. The competition was won by Benfica for the second time in a row, beating Real Madrid 5–3 in the final at the Olympisch Stadion, ...

. In his first start on 13 May, Araújo scored a brace in a 2–0 away win against

Paços de Ferreira Paços de Ferreira () is a city in the Porto District, in the north of Portugal. The population of the city in 2011 was 7491, while its municipality had 56,340 inhabitants, in an area of 70.99 km². Sometimes referred to as the ''Capital do ...

. On 5 September, he agreed to a contract extension to 2027, increasing his

buyout clause A buyout clause or release clause refers to a clause in an employment contract. It allows the employee to terminate the contract unilaterally upon payment of a specified (usually substantial) fee to the employer. The fee may be paid by the employ ...

to €100 million. On 2 November, he scored his first

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

goal in a 6–1 away win against

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa () is one of the biggest sports clubs in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Haifa which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as Football, Basketball, Weightl ...

in their last 2022–23 UEFA Champions League group stage match, to ensure Benfica's qualification to the round of sixteen, as group winners.

2023: Loan to Watford

After making 14 appearances, finding limited first-team minutes, during Benfica's opening half of the season, on 23 January 2023, Araújo joined English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

club

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

on loan until the rest of the season, in order to continue his development.

2023–24: Loan to Famalicão

On 18 July 2023, Primeira Liga club Famalicão announced the signing of Araújo on a season-long loan from Benfica.

International career

Araújo represented

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

at under-17 and under-19, for a total of 7

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 four goals. On 7 October 2022, Araújo won his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for the under-21 side, replacing

Gonçalo Ramos Gonçalo Matias Ramos (; born 20 June 2001) is a Portuguese professional association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), striker for club Paris Saint-Germain F.C., Paris Saint-Germain and the Portugal national fo ...

in the 46th minute in the 11–0 victory thrashing of

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

for the 2023 European Championship qualification campaign.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Benfica *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...

: 2021–22 Individual *

Liga Portugal 2 The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Pr ...

Young Player of the Year: 2021–22 *Liga Portugal 2 Forward of the Month: February 2021 * SJPF Segunda Liga Young Player of the Month: February 2021

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Araujo, Henrique 2002 births Living people Footballers from Funchal Portuguese men's footballers Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football forwards Liga Portugal 2 players Primeira Liga players English Football League players S.L. Benfica B players S.L. Benfica footballers Watford F.C. players F.C. Famalicão players F.C. Arouca players Expatriate men's footballers in England Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in England 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen