Miguel Alexandre Jesus Rosa (born 13 January 1989) 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

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 ...

for

S.U. Sintrense Sport União Sintrense is a Portuguese football club based in Sintra Sintra (, ) is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 377,835 ...

. Formed at Benfica, where he played only in the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

, he achieved

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, ...

totals of 104 games and 17 goals, all for

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 Reste ...

. He spent most of his career in

LigaPro The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Prim ...

with that club and five others, making 231 appearances and scoring 60 goals.

Club career

Benfica

A product of hometown's

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional association football, football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system, Portuguese footba ...

's youth system,

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 ...

-born Rosa joined the club at the age of nine. In a 2006–07 end-of-season

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

with

AEK Athens FC AEK FC ( el, ΠΑΕ A.E.K. ; Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; ''Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos'', meaning ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a Greek professional football club based in Nea Filad ...

, courtesy of manager Fernando Santos, he made his debut with the first team, replacing legendary

Rui Costa Rui Manuel César Costa (; born 29 March 1972) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who is the 34th president of sports club S.L. Benfica. He also succeeded Luís Filipe Vieira as president of the club's SAD board of directors. ...

. He eventually returned to the juniors, scoring 18 goals in his last year in the category. Rosa would be loaned by Benfica in the following three seasons, always to clubs 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 ...

. On 31 August 2008 he made his professional debut, playing 17 minutes for

G.D. Estoril Praia Grupo Desportivo Estoril Praia (), commonly known as Estoril, is a Portuguese sports club from Estoril, Cascais, Lisbon. Founded on 17 May 1939, its football team currently plays in Primeira Liga and hold home games at the Estádio António Coimb ...

in a 0–0 home draw against

U.D. Oliveirense União Desportiva Oliveirense (UDO), commonly known as Oliveirense, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Oliveira de Azeméis, in Aveiro District. The club was founded on 25 October 1922. The main football team currently plays at the Est ...

, and was voted the league's ''Young Player of the Month'' in December 2008. He scored ten goals in the 2009–10 campaign for

A.D. Carregado Associação Desportiva do Carregado, commonly known as just Carregado, is a Portugal, Portuguese Association football, football club based in Carregado, a parish of Alenquer Municipality, Portugal, Alenquer, Lisbon. Founded in 1950, it currently ...

(11 overall) who were competing at that level for the first time ever, eventually being relegated. In

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, with

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 ...

, Rosa was often played as a

second striker Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

instead of his favoured

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

position. He finished with 11 goals in all competitions, and was named the

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

. In the following summer, Rosa was called to Benfica's first team along with fellow youth graduates

Nélson Oliveira Nélson Miguel Castro Oliveira (; born 8 August 1991) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a striker for Greek Super League club PAOK. Formed at S.L. Benfica, he made 24 appearances and scored three goals for the club, whil ...

Rúben Pinto Rúben Rafael de Melo Silva Pinto (born 24 April 1992) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Hungarian club FC Fehérvár as a midfielder. Club career Benfica Born in Odivelas, Lisbon metropolitan area, Pinto joined S.L. Benfica' ...

and

David Simão David Martins Simão (born 15 May 1990) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Primeira Liga club F.C. Arouca. Club career Born in Versailles, France, Simão played most of his youth career at S.L. Benfica, ha ...

. However, it was soon after announced that the club and Belenenses had reached an agreement on extending the loan for the entire 2011–12 season: he continued with his goalscoring form and ended his second stint as team top scorer, also being voted the division two's Breakthrough Player of the Year. After his stint at Belenenses, Rosa was linked with

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 ...

, but he eventually returned to Benfica, being given the captain armband at their reserves. On 27 October 2012 he was called by first-team coach

Jorge Jesus Jorge Fernando Pinheiro de Jesus (; born 24 July 1954) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe. He started his career with Sporting CP, going on to play for 12 ...

for a

match against Gil Vicente FC, but did not leave the bench. He finished the second division campaign as the player with the most goals for his side, and for the second time in his career was voted Player of the Year.

Belenenses

Rosa signed for former club Belenenses on 2 August 2013, on a five-year contract. He played his first game in the Portuguese top flight on the 18th, replacing

Fredy Fredy is a given name, and may refer to: * Fredy Bareiro (born 1982), Paraguayan football player * Fredy Montero Colombian footballer with Sounders FC * Fredy Barth (born 1979), Swiss racing driver * Fredy Glanzmann (born 1963), Swiss Nordic combin ...

for the last 30 minutes of a 0–3 defeat against

Rio Ave F.C. Rio Ave Futebol Clube, commonly known as Rio Ave (), is a Portuguese professional football club based in Vila do Conde, that competes in the Primeira Liga. The club is named after the Ave River, which flows through the town and into the Atlanti ...

at the

Estádio do Restelo The Estádio do Restelo is a multi-purpose stadium in Lisbon, Portugal. The stadium has a capacity of 19,856 people and was built in 1956, in an old stone quarry. It is situated behind the Jerónimos Monastery in the Lisbon parish of Belém. I ...

. On 13 March 2016, Rosa scored his team's second goal in a 3–0 home win over

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 f ...

. It was eventually voted best goal of the month.

Cova da Piedade

Rosa dropped back to the second tier in January 2018, signing an 18-month deal with

C.D. Cova da Piedade Clube Desportivo Cova da Piedade is a football club established in the parish of Cova da Piedade, municipality of Almada, Portugal. History Clube Desportivo Cova da Piedade was founded on 28 January 1947, resulting from the merge between União ...

instead of several offers from the top flight. Released at the end of his contract with the team from

Almada Almada () is a city and a municipality in Portugal, located on the southern margin of the Tagus River, on the opposite side of the river from Lisbon. The two cities are connected by the 25 de Abril Bridge. The population in 2011 was 174,030, in a ...

, he remained out of work until January 2020, when he rejoined the same club until the end of the season. On 9 September 2020, Rosa was one of several players given new contracts, as the side avoided their scheduled relegation due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

International career

An international for Portugal at youth level, Rosa was elected Best Player in the ''2008 Torneio Internacional do Porto'' for the under-19 team.

Career statistics

Honours

* Segunda Liga Player of the Year:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

* Segunda Liga Breakthrough Player of the Year: 2011–12 *SJPF Segunda Liga Young Player of the Month: December 2008, October 2011, April 2012, August/September 2012, February 2013 *SJPF Segunda Liga Player of the Month: August/September 2012, October/November 2012, January 2013, February 2013, March 2013, April 2013 *

Goal of the Month: March 2016 *

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual football club competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the Primeira Liga and LigaPro, the top two tier ...

top scorer: 2011–12 *Torneio Internacional do Porto Best Player: 2008

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosa, Miguel 1989 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Lisbon Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players G.D. Estoril Praia players C.F. Os Belenenses players S.L. Benfica B players C.D. Cova da Piedade players C.F. Estrela da Amadora players S.U. Sintrense players Portugal men's youth international footballers