Nuno Miguel Barbosa Morais (born 29 January 1984) is a Portuguese 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 ...

. Mainly a

defensive 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 boundari ...

, he could also appear as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He was signed by

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in 2004, but stayed only two years with the club, going on to spend the vast majority of his career with

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

and win 16 major titles, including nine

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 ...

championships.

Football career

Chelsea

Born in

Penafiel Penafiel ( or () is a municipality and former bishopric (now a Latin Catholic titular see) in the northern Portuguese district of Porto. Capital of the Tâmega Subregion, the population was 72,265 in 2011, in an area of . History The region ...

Porto District The District of Porto ( pt, Distrito do Porto ) is located on the north-west coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Porto, the second largest city in the country. It is bordered by the Aveiro and Viseu districts to the south, Br ...

, Morais started his career at his hometown club F.C. Penafiel, but in August 2004 was signed by England's

for an undisclosed fee on a three-year contract, after a successful trial period. He made his debut for the latter in an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

win against Scunthorpe United in January 2005, playing the full 90 minutes. His first

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

appearance occurred on 10 May, as a late substitute in a 3–1 away victory over Manchester United. Due to the fact that Morais struggled to get first team action in his first season, he was loaned 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 ...

in 2005–06, alongside compatriot Filipe Oliveira. In that summer, he appeared twice for the Portuguese under-21s at the

2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 15th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. In December 2005, Portugal was selected to host the finals of the competition, which took place from 23 May–4 June 2006. The tournament was ...

on home soil, with Oliveira.

APOEL

Returning to Chelsea, Morais only appeared twice in the league, totalling less than 20 minutes in home draws against Manchester United and Everton and playing three times between the FA Cup and the Football League Cup. On 11 May 2007, he signed a two-year deal with Cypriot champions

APOEL FC APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

on a free transfer. Morais was converted to a

during his time in Nicosia, and signed a new contract until June 2012. Since his debut he was an essential defensive unit as the side won, amongst other trophies, nine championships, three

cups CUPS (formerly an acronym for Common UNIX Printing System) is a modular printing system for Unix-like computer operating systems which allows a computer to act as a print server. A computer running CUPS is a host that can accept print jobs ...

and four super cups; he also appeared in all six group-stage matches of the club in its first

participation Participation or Participant may refer to: Politics *Participation (decision making), mechanisms for people to participate in social decisions *Civic participation, engagement by the citizens in government *e-participation, citizen participation ...

in the

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 competi ...

. In the 2011–12 Champions League, Morais was an undisputed starter for the side as they reached the quarter-finals for the first time ever, playing all ten fixtures – including the round-of-16 defeat of Olympique Lyonnais where he converted his attempt in the

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. On 4 May 2012, he agreed to a three-year extension to his link. During 2013–14, Morais appeared in every group stage game in APOEL's

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. ...

campaign, and scored the 2–1 winner against FC Girondins de Bordeaux at

GSP Stadium Gymnastic Club "The Pancyprians" Stadium (GSP Stadium) ( el, Στάδιο Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος "Τα Παγκύπρια") is a football stadium in Strovolos, Nicosia District, Cyprus. Although small by international standards ...

. The following season, he was also first-choice in his team's Champions League campaign. On 7 May 2016, following a league match against

Apollon Limassol FC Apollon Limassol FC ( el, Απόλλων Λεμεσού, ''Apollon Lemesou'') is a Cypriot sports club, based in Limassol. It has football, basketball and volleyball teams. Founded in 1954, Apollon FC currently plays in the Cypriot First Divis ...

, Morais reached 251 for APOEL and became the foreigner with the most appearances in the history of the Cypriot top division. On 16 August, after playing against F.C. Copenhagen in the Champions League play-off round, he reached a club-best 81 games in European competitions. Morais retired in July 2019, at the age of 35. He finished his career as APOEL's highest appearance maker of all time, with 524 matches to his name. Following his retirement, he remained at his main club as the youth team coach and assistant manager, joining the coaching team of compatriot Ricardo Sá Pinto in June 2023.

Career statistics

Honours

Chelsea *

: 2006–07 * Football League Cup: 2006–07 APOEL *

: 2008–09,

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. ...

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 ...

, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19 *

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup () is the main cup competition in Cypriot football, run by the Cyprus Football Association (CFA). It began in 1934, the same season with the Cypriot Championship. It is the second most important competition for Cypriot club team ...

: 2007–08, 2013–14, 2014–15 *

Cypriot Super Cup The Cypriot Super Cup is a Cypriot football trophy, contested in an annual match between the previous season's Cypriot First Division champions, and the Cypriot Cup winners. The match is contested at the beginning of the football season, and is u ...

: 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morais, Nuno 1984 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Penafiel Men's association football central defenders Men's association football midfielders Men's association football utility players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players F.C. Penafiel players C.S. Marítimo players Premier League players Chelsea F.C. players Cypriot First Division players APOEL FC players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's B international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in England Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus