José Manuel Martins Dominguez (born 16 February 1974) is a Portuguese professional

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 ...

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 ...

and former player. He is the manager of Cypriot First Division club

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

. As a player, he was a diminutive winger with above-average technical skills and speed. He started playing professional football not in his own country but in England with Birmingham City. After two years with Sporting CP, he returned to England for three years with Tottenham Hotspur, then spent another three with German club 1. FC Kaiserslautern and had short spells in Qatar and Brazil. Dominguez represented Portugal at youth level, then won three caps for the senior team in the 90s.

Club career

Early years and Sporting CP

Born in

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 ...

and raised in the Bairro Alto neighbourhood, Dominguez had an unassuming youth spell at his hometown club S.L. Benfica, then played for a year with amateurs

S.U. Sintrense Sport União Sintrense is a Portuguese football club based in Sintra Sintra (, ) is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 377,835 ...

also in the area. After a few months at AD Fafe he had his first taste of professional football, joining Football League Second Division club Birmingham City in March 1994 and being relegated in his first season. Following Luís Figo's departure to FC Barcelona, Sporting CP chose Dominguez as his replacement, and he went on to spend two solid seasons at the latter side, albeit with no silverware.

Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur, coached by

Gerry Francis Gerald Charles James Francis (born 6 December 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. Playing career Francis made his first team debut for Queens Park Rangers against Liverpool in March 1969. He was captain and central midfield play ...

, returned Dominguez to England in August 1997, for £1.6 million. He made his debut in the Premier League against Derby County at the end of that month, winning a penalty after coming on as a second-half substitute; however, despite being at White Hart Lane for over three years, his appearances were limited: he started regularly under Francis, but came more regularly off the bench during Christian Gross's tenure as manager. Dominguez won the 1998–99 League Cup with Spurs as an unused substitute 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 ...

, but fell out of favour during the following season under George Graham, who demoted him to the reserves. He only played two league matches for the first team, both as substitute.

Later career

Dominguez signed for 1. FC Kaiserslautern in November 2000, for £250,000. He scored in only his second Bundesliga game, a 4–2 loss at

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

, but his performances were also erratic, mainly due to coaching changes and personal problems; in his last season he scored one goal in 26 matches, but the team finished just one place above relegation due to financial irregularities. After a brief spell in Qatar with Al Ahli SC, Dominguez moved in 2005 to Brazil's CR Vasco da Gama. After only three starts in 11 competitive appearances, he was not offered a new contract and left, retiring aged 31.

International career

While at Sporting, Dominguez won three caps for Portugal. In a more important role, he helped the

Olympic team A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

to a fourth-place finish at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

in Atlanta; that squad also included four other Sporting graduates – Luís Andrade, Dani,

Emílio Peixe Emílio Manuel Delgado Peixe (born 16 January 1973) is a Portuguese former footballer who played mainly as a defensive midfielder, currently manager of the Kuwait under-23 team. A member of the dubbed Golden Generation who hailed from the Por ...

and

Hugo Porfírio Hugo Cardoso Porfírio (born 28 September 1973) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played mostly as a winger. He amassed Primeira Liga totals of 86 games and ten goals over the course of nine seasons, representing five clubs. ...

Coaching career

Dominguez spent two years coaching

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 ...

's youth sides. On 14 March 2012 he became the first team's fourth coach of the campaign, replacing the fired

Manuel Cajuda Manuel Ventura Cajuda de Sousa (born 27 June 1951) is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a midfielder, and the manager of Leixões SC. In a career which spanned three decades, he managed nearly 20 teams in his own country, and also w ...

. In

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, he worked with Sporting's reserves in the Segunda Liga. In late December 2013, Dominguez was appointed at Real Cartagena in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

as part of an agreement between that club and Sporting. On 24 March 2015, he was named at the helm of Recreativo de Huelva, replacing

Juan Manuel Pavón Juan Manuel 'Juanma' Pavón Domínguez (born 15 February 1976) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a midfielder, and is the current manager of CD San Roque de Lepe. Club career Born in Huelva, Andalusia, Pavón finished his formation a ...

. He remained at the club after their relegation to

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

and was dismissed on 12 October, having won two and drawn three of the first eight games of the season. Dominguez later worked as assistant to his former Sporting teammate

Ricardo Sá Pinto Ricardo Manuel Andrade e Silva Sá Pinto (born 10 October 1972) is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a forward, currently manager of Persian Gulf Pro League club Esteghlal. He was known for his fighting spirit, best displayed in hi ...

, at

Gaziantep FK Gaziantep Futbol Kulübü is a Turkish professional football club based in Gaziantep. Founded in 1988, the club currently plays in the Süper Lig, the highest tier of Turkish football. The club was founded as Sankospor in 1988 and competed at th ...

in Turkey and APOEL FC. After helping the latter to the Cypriot First Division title in 2023–24, he was appointed their manager in August 2024.

Style of play

Standing at 165 centimeters, Dominguez was one of the shortest players to have ever played in the Premier League. In his prime, he was noted for his pace, acceleration, agility, technique, flair and dribbling, and while at Benfica he often drew comparisons to Paulo Futre.

Personal life

Dominguez married a woman from Lagos, Algarve, being deeply familiar with that town of southern mainland Portugal.

Honours

Sporting CP * Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira:

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

Tottenham Hotspur *

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

: 1998–99

References

External links