Luís Manuel da Costa Silva (born 29 September 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 ...

who plays for AVS Futebol SAD as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He played 51 Primeira Liga games for

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

Gil Vicente Gil Vicente (; c. 1465c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often ref ...

and Belenenses but spent most of his career in the second tier, achieving over 250 appearances and 29 goals for six clubs, mainly two spells at Leixões.

Club career

Born in Matosinhos,

Grande Porto Grande Porto () or Greater Porto is a former Portuguese NUTS3 subregion, integrating the NUTS2 region of Norte, in Portugal. It was abolished at the January 2015 NUTS 3 revision. It corresponded to 11 municipalities out of 16, the other 5 in E ...

, Silva began his career at local side Leixões S.C. 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 ...

, making his professional debut on 21 August 2011 as the season began with a 1–0 away win against Associação Naval 1º de Maio. He scored his first goal as the game's only on 20 November at home to

Santa Maria F.C. Santa Maria Futebol Clube ''(abbreviated as Santa Maria FC)'' is a Portuguese football club based in Galegos (Santa Maria), Barcelos in the district of Braga. Background Santa Maria FC currently plays in the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores ...

in the

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of the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

, while all seven of his league goals came the following campaign. On 19 March 2013, Silva agreed to join

S.C. Braga Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese ...

upon the expiration of his contract. He appeared in just four matches, with his Primeira Liga debut coming on 16 August as a late substitute in a 2–0 opening victory at

F.C. Paços de Ferreira Futebol Clube Paços de Ferreira () is a Portuguese football club based in Paços de Ferreira, Porto district. Founded in 1950, the club competes in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at the 9,077-seater Estádio da Mata Real, a municipal s ...

. He played more regularly on loan at

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 ...

also in the top flight, signing in January and July of the following year. After scoring six times in the 2015–16 LigaPro for G.D. Chaves, Silva returned to the highest tier at C.F. Os Belenenses, where he was again rarely used and subsequently loaned down to C.D. Cova da Piedade in January 2017. He then returned to Leixões and after his first season, agreed to a new deal unitl 2021, which he rescinded one year early amidst a COVID-related pay dispute. A highlight of his second spell at the

Estádio do Mar 300 px, Estádio do Mar - Main stand Estádio do Mar is a multi-use stadium in Matosinhos, Portugal. It is used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of Leixões The Port of Leixões ( pt, Porto de Leixões, ) is one of Portugal ...

was scoring twice in a 4–0 win over Cova da Piedade on 10 March 2018. Following a return to Chaves and a relegated season at Varzim SC, Silva remained in division two by signing for

U.D. Vilafranquense União Desportiva Vilafranquense is a Portuguese football club from Vila Franca de Xira, Lisbon District. It currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, the second tier of the Portuguese football league system, following its promotion in 2019. The oth ...

in July 2022. A year later, he renewed for a second year, while the club relocated to

Vila das Aves Aves is an industrial town and civil parish (freguesia) in northern Portugal. The population in 2011 was 8,458, in an area of 6.16 km².

and merged with C.D. Aves to become AVS Futebol SAD.

International career

Silva earned nine

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 Ja ...

for Portugal at under-20 and under-21 level, all in friendly games. On his debut on 10 January 2012, he played the second half of a 1–1 draw with

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

in Leiria.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Silva, Luis 1992 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Matosinhos Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Leixões S.C. players S.C. Braga players S.C. Braga B players Gil Vicente F.C. players G.D. Chaves players C.D. Nacional players C.F. Os Belenenses players C.D. Cova da Piedade players Varzim S.C. players U.D. Vilafranquense players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers