João Miguel Duarte Afonso (born 11 February 1982) is a Portuguese 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 central defender.

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 ...

, Afonso played lower league football until the age of 30, representing mainly

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 ...

and

C.D. Mafra Clube Desportivo Mafra is a Portuguese football club, currently playing in the Liga Bwin. They are based in the town of Mafra and own Campo Doutor Mário Silveira stadium, but the games are played in Estádio Municipal de Mafra. Founded in 1965 ...

. In 2012, he signed a one-year contract with

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

in the Segunda Liga, making his professional debut on 14 October in a 1–0 home win against

Portimonense S.C. Portimonense Sporting Clube is a Portuguese sports club based in Portimão. Founded on 14 August 1914, it is most notable for its professional association football, football team, which currently plays in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

and contributing 16 games and two goals during the season as the club returned to 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, ...

after three years. Afonso's first appearance in the Portuguese top flight took place on 18 August 2013 (at the age of 31 years and six months), as he featured the full 90 minutes in a 0–3 home loss to Rio Ave FC.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Afonso, Joao 1982 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Lisbon Men's association football central defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Odivelas F.C. players F.C. Barreirense players S.C.U. Torreense players C.D. Olivais e Moscavide players C.D. Mafra players C.F. Os Belenenses players S.U. Sintrense players