José Américo Taira Costa Pereira (born 18 November 1968), known as Taira, is a Portuguese former

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.

Club career

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 ...

, Taira was released by

C.F. Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Rest ...

manager

Henri Depireux Henri Depireux (1 February 1944 – 8 April 2022) was a Belgian football player and manager. Career Depireux played club football for RFC Liège and Standard de Liège. He also played twice for Belgium. After his playing career ended, Depireux ...

in 1987, but after two good years at

C.D. Montijo Clube Desportivo de Montijo commonly known as simply as Montijo was a football club from the city of Montijo, Setúbal. The club was founded in 1948 and folded in 2007 due to financial problems. As Clube Desportivo de Montijo, it played in the P ...

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 ...

he returned to his hometown club. He was part of the sides that were relegated from 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, ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

and promoted back a year later. Taira was signed for C.F. Estrela da Amadora in the summer of 1994 by coach João Alves, who was dismissed before the start of the campaign. He played only seven matches under his successor

Acácio Casimiro Acácio Alfredo Casimiro (born 24 March 1949 in Lisbon) is a Portuguese former Association football, football midfielder and Manager (association football), manager. External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Casimiro, Acacio 1949 births Living p ...

, and then returned to Belenenses a year later, now managed by Alves; in his only season back at the Estádio do Restelo, the side finished sixth. When Alves was hired by

UD Salamanca Unión Deportiva Salamanca, S.A.D. () was a historical Spanish football team based in Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 February 1923 and nicknamed ''Los Charros'', the club played in white shirts and black ...

of the Spanish

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

, he brought the core of the team to his new employers, including Taira. On 9 October 1996, he made his only appearance 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 ...

in a 3–0 win away to

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

in the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

qualifiers, replacing

Oceano Oceano (Spanish: ''Océano'', meaning "Ocean") is a census-designated place (CDP) in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. The population was 7,286 at the 2010 census, up from 7,260 at the 2000 census. Geography Oceano is located a ...

for the final 17 minutes in

Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

– this made him the first player to debut for the country while playing abroad. Salamanca were relegated from

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 ...

in 1998–99 and a year later Taira joined

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA Euro ...

, winning promotion to that competition as champions in his debut campaign. In 2002 he returned to Portugal, spending one year with

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 ...

in the second tier and another with

Clube Oriental de Lisboa Clube Oriental de Lisboa is a Portuguese football club based in Lisbon. Founded in 1946, it currently competes in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home games at ''Campo Engenheiro Carlos Salema'', with an 8,500 capacity. History Clube Orienta ...

in the lower leagues before retiring at 35. After playing for their veterans, in July 2018 Taira was appointed director of football at former club Belenenses, who had been relegated to the Lisbon Football Association leagues after the spin-off of their professional team into B-SAD.

Personal life

Taira's son,

Afonso Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

, was also a footballer and a midfielder.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Taira, Jose 1968 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Lisbon Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players C.D. Montijo players C.F. Os Belenenses players C.F. Estrela da Amadora players S.C. Farense players Clube Oriental de Lisboa players La Liga players Segunda División players UD Salamanca players Sevilla FC players Portugal men's international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain