Luís Carlos Ramos Martins (; born 10 June 1992) is a Portuguese 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 plays as a left-back for

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

club

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on Marc ...

Club career

Benfica and Gil

Born in

Lamego Lamego (; cel-x-proto, Lamecum) is a city and municipality in the Viseu District, in the Norte Region, Portugal, Norte Region of the Douro Subregion, Douro in northern Portugal. Located on the shores of the Balsemão River, the municipality has a ...

, Viseu District, Martins was promoted to S.L. Benfica's first team for the 2011–12 season. He made his official debut for the club on 2 November 2011, starting in a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

group stage game against

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

and being replaced at the hour-mark of the 1–1 home draw by

Miguel Vítor Miguel Ângelo Leonardo Vítor (; born 30 June 1989) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Israeli club Hapoel Be'er Sheva, where he is also captain, and for the Israel national team. He spent most of his career with Ben ...

. Martins started the 2012–13 campaign with Benfica's reserves, in the Segunda Liga. On 9 January 2013, however, he signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with

Gil Vicente F.C. Gil Vicente Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Gil Vicente, founded in 1924, is a Portuguese football club that plays in Barcelos. It competes in the Primeira Liga, the top division of football in the country, and it is named after the Portugues ...

of 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, ...

. He scored his first goal for the latter on 18 August of that year, closing a 2–0 home win over Académica de Coimbra.

Spain

On 1 September 2014, Martins agreed to a four-year deal with Granada CF from Spain, for an undisclosed fee. He played his first match in

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 ...

on the 27th, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 6–0 away loss to

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

. On 24 August 2015, Martins was loaned to

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 ...

side CA Osasuna for one year. Late into the 2017 January

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 ...

, after only 73 minutes of action upon his return to the

Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

, he joined

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 Liga. ...

on a two-year loan.

Chaves

Martins signed a two-year contract with

G.D. Chaves Grupo Desportivo de Chaves, commonly known as Chaves (), is a Portuguese association football, football football team, club from Chaves, Portugal, Chaves currently playing in the Primeira Liga. They were founded in 1949 and currently play at Está ...

in June 2018. He scored his only goal for them on 10 February 2019, in a 2–1 league defeat at S.C. Braga.

Sporting KC

On 1 August 2019, Martins joined

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City, often shortened to Sporting KC, is an American men's professional Association football, soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The administrative offices are located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and t ...

until the end of the 2021 season with an option through to 2022. He scored his only goal for the club on 4 August 2021, the second in the 4–1 away win over

Los Angeles FC Los Angeles Football Club, commonly referred to as LAFC, is an American professional Association football team based in Los Angeles. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The club ...

. Martins was released in November 2021.

Vancouver Whitecaps

On 4 May 2022, Martins signed with

also of the

for the remainder of the campaign.

International career

Martins was picked by Portugal under-20 coach

Ilídio Vale Ilídio Fernando Torres do Vale (born 13 December 1957), known as Ilídio Vale, is a Portuguese football manager, currently serving as an assistant coach of the Qatar under23 national team. Early life Vale was born in Zimbabwe. During his yo ...

for the 2011 FIFA World Cup 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 ...

, helping the national team finish second to Brazil.

Honours

Portugal U20 * FIFA U-20 World Cup runner-up:

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Orders *

Knight of the

Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Henry ( pt, Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique) is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Martins, Luis 1992 births Living people People from Lamego Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Viseu District Men's association football fullbacks Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players S.L. Benfica footballers S.L. Benfica B players Gil Vicente F.C. players C.S. Marítimo players G.D. Chaves players La Liga players Segunda División players Granada CF footballers CA Osasuna players Major League Soccer players MLS Next Pro players Sporting Kansas City players Vancouver Whitecaps FC players Whitecaps FC 2 players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in the United States Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Canada