Manuel dos Santos Fernandes (born 28 March 1974), known as Dos Santos, is a 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 ...

who played as a left back. Born in Cape Verde, Dos Santos represented France internationally.

Football career

Born in Praia, Cape Verde one year before the nation gained independence from Portugal, Dos Santos migrated to France at a very young age, and started his professional career at

AS Monaco FC Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club SA, commonly referred to as AS Monaco () or Monaco, is a professional football club based in Monaco that is member of French Football Federation (FFF) and competes in Ligue 1, the top tier of Frenc ...

. He then played for

Montpellier HSC Montpellier Hérault Sport Club (), commonly referred to as Montpellier HSC or simply Montpellier, is a French professional football club based in the city of Montpellier in Occitanie. The original club was founded in 1919, while the current ...

and Olympique de Marseille, spending four Ligue 1 seasons with the latter: with ''L'OM'', he appeared in nine complete matches in the

2003–04 UEFA Cup The 2003–04 UEFA Cup was won by Valencia in the final against Marseille. It wrapped up a league and UEFA Cup double for Valencia. Porto could not defend their title as they automatically qualified for the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League and a ...

, including the 0–2 final loss against

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the Spa ...

which would be his last match for the club. In the summer of 2004, Portuguese Primeira Liga side

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904 as ''Sport Lisboa'', Be ...

bought Dos Santos for an undisclosed fee, and he signed a three-year contract. The first-choice during his debut campaign, as the Lisbon-based side ended an 11-year drought in the league, he appeared rarely in the following season, and left in the January 2006

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 wi ...

. Dos Santos then returned to former club Monaco, where he replaced Manchester United-bound

Patrice Evra Patrice Latyr Evra (; born 15 May 1981) is a French football coach and former professional player. Originally a forward, he primarily played as a left-back. Evra served as captain for both Manchester United and the France national team. His ...

after signing a -year link. After 46 competitive games during this stint, a new deal was not agreed and he was released. In July 2007, Dos Santos moved to RC Strasbourg, where he spent one year before announcing his retirement from the game in February 2009, aged 35. Shortly after, however, he signed with amateurs

Rapid de Menton Rapid Omnisports de Menton is a French association football club founded in 1916. They are based in the town of Menton and their home stadium is the Stade Lucien Rhein. As of the 2020–21 season, they play in the Mediterranean League of the F ...

, close to where he had fixed his residence in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

. Dos Santos returned to Monaco in 2010, going on to be in charge of its youth teams for several years.

Honours

Monaco * Ligue 1: 1996–97 Montpellier * UEFA Intertoto Cup:

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

Marseille *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

runner-up: 2003–04 Benfica * Primeira Liga: 2004–05 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese football match played since 1979 between the winners of the Portuguese League (Primeira Liga) and Portuguese ...

: 2005 *

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 ...

runner-up: 2004–05

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dos Santos, Manuel 1974 births Living people Footballers from Praia People with acquired French citizenship French men's footballers Cape Verdean men's footballers Cape Verdean emigrants to France Men's association football defenders Ligue 1 players AS Monaco FC players Montpellier HSC players Olympique de Marseille players RC Strasbourg Alsace players Primeira Liga players S.L. Benfica footballers Cape Verdean expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Cape Verdean expatriate sportspeople in Portugal French sportspeople of Cape Verdean descent AS Monaco FC non-playing staff