José Carlos Fernandes Vidigal (born 11 July 1969), commonly known as Lito, is an Angolan 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 who played as a defender. He spent his entire playing career in Portugal, mainly with Belenenses in 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, ...

. An Angolan international for five years, he played at the

1998 Africa Cup of Nations The 1998 African Cup of Nations in Burkina Faso was the 21st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (ACN), the national football championship of Africa, administered by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). Just like in 1996, the field of si ...

. Vidigal managed eight clubs in Portugal's top flight, including Belenenses. He also led his nation at the

2012 Africa Cup of Nations The 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 28th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa organized by the Confederation of African Football ( ...

Playing career

Born in

Luanda Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...

Portuguese Angola Portuguese Angola refers to Angola during the historic period when it was a territory under Portuguese rule in southwestern Africa. In the same context, it was known until 1951 as Portuguese West Africa (officially the State of West Africa). I ...

, Vidigal spent his entire career in Portugal, representing at the professional level O Elvas CAD, S.C. Campomaiorense,

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 ...

and

C.D. Santa Clara Clube Desportivo Santa Clara is a Portuguese football club from Ponta Delgada, Azores. They play in the 13,277-seat Estádio de São Miguel. They are the most successful football team from the Azores Islands as the only team from the archipelag ...

and retiring in 2004 at the age of 35, totalling 214 matches between the

and the Segunda Liga. Internationally, Vidigal played with

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

at the

, earning 17

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 ...

Coaching career

Immediately after retiring in 2004, Vidigal took up coaching, starting with lowly A.D. Pontassolense and G.D. Ribeirão. In 2008, he moved to C.F. Estrela da Amadora – coaching his younger brother Luís after he returned from a lengthy spell in Italy – and joined second-tier

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 ...

in February of the following year. In late October 2009, as Manuel Fernandes bought out his contract 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 ...

to return to his favourite club

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória (b ...

, Vidigal was named his successor. On 8 January 2011, he was appointed coach of the Angolan national side. The ''Black Antelopes'' qualified for the

in October, and were eliminated at the group stage of the final tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. With the stated aim of winning titles abroad rather than avoiding relegation in Portugal, Vidigal remained in Africa and signed with Libya's Al-Ittihad Club from December 2012. The following April, he left

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

due to

political instability Political decay is a political theory, originally described by Samuel P. Huntington, which describes how chaos and disorder can arise from social modernization increasing more rapidly than political and institutional modernization. Huntington provi ...

. Dismissed by

AEL Limassol Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou ( el, Αθλητική Ένωση Λεμεσού, translation=Athletic Union of Limassol) commonly known as AEL, is a Cypriot sports club based in the city of Limassol, most famous for its football team. AEL also maintain ...

of the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

at the start of the

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

, Vidigal returned to Belenenses late into 2013–14, replacing

Marco Paulo Marco Paulo is a masculine Portuguese given name. Notable people with the name include: * Marco Paulo Rebelo Lopes, (born 1976) Angolan international footballer of Portuguese descent * Marco Paulo Faria Lemos, (born 1973) Portuguese footballer * Ma ...

at the helm of the bottom-placed team and becoming their third coach of the season. Even though he did not finish the following campaign, being replaced by

Jorge Simão António Jorge Rocha Simão (born 12 August 1976) is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a midfielder, currently a manager. Having played only as an amateur, he began work as an assistant manager at 26, before his first outright posit ...

with nine matches to go, the side eventually qualified to the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

after finishing sixth. Vidigal repeated the feat in 2015–16 after leading

F.C. Arouca Futebol Clube de Arouca () is a football club based in Arouca, Porto Metropolitan Area, Portugal. Founded in 1951, the club plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Estádio Municipal de Arouca, with a 5,000-seat capacity. History Founde ...

to a best-ever classification of fifth, in only the club's third year in the top flight. Previously, in March 2016, he renewed his contract for two years. In February 2017, Vidigal left Arouca for

Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club ( he, מועדון כדורגל מכבי תל אביב; ''Moadon Kaduregel Maccabi Tel Aviv'') is an Israeli football club from Tel Aviv and part of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Sport Club. Founded in 1906 in Jaffa as ...

on an 18-month contract with the option of a further year. Despite leading the team to the runners-up position behind

Hapoel Be'er Sheva FC Hapoel Be'er Sheva Football Club ( he, מועדון הכדורגל הפועל באר שבע, ''Moadon HaKaduregel Hapoel Be'er Sheva'') is an Israeli football club from the city of Be'er Sheva, that competes in the Israeli Premier League. The cl ...

, he was relieved of his duties by director

Jordi Cruyff Johan Jordi Cruijff (anglicised to Cruyff; born 9 February 1974) is a Association football, football coach and former player. He is the son of former player and manager Johan Cruyff. As a footballer, Cruyff played from 1992 through to 2010, in ...

at the end of the season. Vidigal returned to Portugal's top flight in October 2017 when he was hired by

C.D. Aves Clube Desportivo das Aves (), commonly known as Desportivo das Aves, or simply as Aves, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Vila das Aves, Santo Tirso. The club was founded on 12 November 1930 and plays at the Estádio do Clube ...

, but after disputes with the board he left the following January. Ahead of the following campaign, he signed a two-year deal at Vitória de Setúbal, and again parted before its conclusion. Days later, he replaced the sacked Jorge Simão at struggling

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 ...

. On 17 December 2019, having taken 18 points from 14 league fixtures, Vidigal was dismissed. He returned to Setúbal the following 6 July, three points above the drop zone with four games to play. Having succeeded in that task, he moved on to

C.S. Marítimo Club Sport Marítimo MH M, commonly known as Marítimo ( locally ), is a Portuguese sports club founded in Funchal, Madeira, in 1910. Marítimo is best known for its football team playing in Portugal's top-flight competition, the Primeira Lig ...

to replace

José Manuel Gomes José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

. On 4 December 2020, with the

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

n club in 15th place, Vidigal was replaced by under-23 manager

Milton Mendes Milton Mendes (born 25 April 1965) is a Brazilian football coach and a former player who played mainly as a right back. He is the manager of Retrô. He spent the better part of his 18-year professional career in Portugal, representing nine and ...

. He took over from João Henriques at

Moreirense F.C. Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, in Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joa ...

on 29 November of the following year, but left after only one month.

Personal life

Vidigal had 12 brothers and sisters, four of his male siblings being footballers: Beto, Luís (who played for

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

and in the

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

, represented

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 ...

and was coached in the 2008–09 campaign by Lito),

Toni Toni, Toñi or Tóni is a unisex given name. In Spanish, Italian, Croatian and Finnish, it is a masculine given name used as a short form of the names derived from Antonius like Antonio, Ante or Anttoni. In Danish, English, Finnish, Norwegia ...

and

Jorge Jorge is a Spanish and Portuguese given name. It is derived from the Greek name Γεώργιος (''Georgios'') via Latin ''Georgius''; the former is derived from (''georgos''), meaning "farmer" or "earth-worker". The Latin form ''Georgius'' ...

. His nephew,

André André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation o ...

, was also involved in the sport professionally.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vidigal, Lito 1969 births Living people Sportspeople from Luanda Angolan footballers Association football defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players O Elvas C.A.D. players S.C. Campomaiorense players C.F. Os Belenenses players C.D. Santa Clara players Angola international footballers 1998 African Cup of Nations players Angolan expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Angolan football managers Primeira Liga managers Liga Portugal 2 managers C.F. Estrela da Amadora managers Portimonense S.C. managers U.D. Leiria managers C.F. Os Belenenses managers C.D. Aves managers Vitória F.C. managers Boavista F.C. managers C.S. Marítimo managers Moreirense F.C. managers Al-Ittihad Tripoli managers Cypriot First Division managers AEL Limassol managers Israeli Premier League managers Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. managers Angola national football team managers 2012 Africa Cup of Nations managers Angolan expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Portugal Expatriate football managers in Libya Expatriate football managers in Cyprus Expatriate football managers in Israel Angolan expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Angolan expatriate sportspeople in Libya Angolan expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Angolan expatriate sportspeople in Israel