Hélder Manuel Elias Domingos Baptista (born 18 February 1972) is a Portuguese retired 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. 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 166 matches and six goals over seven seasons, mainly with Boavista. He also spent several years in Spain, with Rayo Vallecano. After retiring, Baptista went on to work as an assistant manager.

Playing career

Club

Born in Torres Vedras, Lisbon District, Baptista made his senior – and

– debut in the 1991–92 season, appearing sparingly as local club

S.C.U. Torreense Sport Clube União Torreense is a Portuguese sports club, best known for its association football section, founded in Torres Vedras in 1917, as Sport União Torreense. History It participated six times in the Portuguese Liga (last in 1991–92 ...

was relegated after finishing third bottom. In the following six years, with the exception of 1993–94, spent with the same team, he continued to compete in the top flight, representing

S.C. Farense Sporting Clube Farense, simply known as Farense, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Faro in the district of the same name and the region of Algarve. Founded in 1910, the club will play the 2021–22 season in the Liga Portugal ...

, S.C. Braga and

Boavista FC 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 played his first game in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

with the latter side, featuring the full 90 minutes in a 3–2 away win against

Odense Boldklub Odense Boldklub (; also known as Odense BK or the more commonly used OB) is a Danish professional football club based in the city Odense. The club has won three Danish championships and five Danish Cup trophies. OB play in the Danish Superliga ...

on 10 September 1996. In January 1999, Baptista signed with

Paris Saint-Germain F.C. Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

in the

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

, but the following

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer win ...

he switched to the Spanish

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 Rayo Vallecano, his first match in the latter competition taking place on 22 August when he came as a 73rd-minute substitute for

Luis Cembranos Luis Cembranos Martínez (born 6 June 1972) is a Spanish retired professional Association football, footballer who played as a Midfielder#Wide midfielder, right midfielder, currently a Manager (association football), manager. He amassed La Liga ...

in the 2–0 victory at

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

, and his maiden goal occurring on 5 December in a 3–2 away loss to Deportivo de La Coruña. Baptista contributed nine appearances (eight starts) in Rayo's quarter-final run in the

2000–01 UEFA Cup Liverpool won the 2000–01 UEFA Cup with a golden goal in the final against Alavés for their third title in the competition. It completed a cup treble for the club, as they also won the FA Cup and the League Cup that season. The conclusion of ...

, but from

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

he also saw the club drop two consecutive levels. He retired in 2006 at the age of 33, after one year in the Portuguese third tier with Torreense.

International

Baptista earned six caps 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 ...

at under-21 level in one year. His last appearance was a 2–1 win over

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in the 1994 UEFA European Championship qualifiers on 27 April 1993, where he played as a substitute.

Coaching career

Baptista started working as a coach in 2011, joining Pedro Caixinha's staff at

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 ...

. He continued to work under the latter in the following years, at

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 ...

, Mexico's

Santos Laguna Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. (), commonly known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club that competes in the Liga MX. It is located in northern Mexico and represents the urban area of La Comarca Lagunera, made up o ...

and

Al-Gharafa SC Al-Gharafa Sports Club ( ar, نادي الغرافة الرياضي) is a Qatari multisports club based in the Al Gharrafa district of Al Rayyan. It is best known for its football team, although it also has teams for other sports. It was establ ...

from Qatar. In March 2017, both Caixinha and Baptista joined Scottish club

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

. On 26 October, they left.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baptista, Helder 1972 births Living people People from Torres Vedras Sportspeople from Lisbon District Portuguese footballers Association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players S.C.U. Torreense players S.C. Farense players S.C. Braga players Boavista F.C. players Ligue 1 players Paris Saint-Germain F.C. players La Liga players Segunda División players Rayo Vallecano players Portugal under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in France Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Rangers F.C. non-playing staff