Nuno Miguel Monteiro Rocha (born 25 March 1992) is a Cape Verdean former professional
footballer who played as a
midfielder.
Club career
Marítimo
Born in
Praia
Praia (, Portuguese language, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde. , Rocha moved to Portugal with
C.S. Marítimo for his last year as a junior. He spent the vast majority of his first three senior seasons with
the reserves, competing with them in both the
second
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...
and
third divisions.
Rocha made his
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, ...
debut with the first team on 7 October 2013, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 away loss against
Vitória de Guimarães. He scored his first goal in the competition the following 16 February, the game's only at home to
Vitória de Setúbal.
Universitatea Craiova
In June 2014, Rocha signed with Romanian club
CS Universitatea Craiova. His maiden appearance in
Liga I took place on 25 July, as he came on as a second-half
substitute in a 1–1 home draw with
CS Pandurii Târgu Jiu.
In the
2015–16 season, Rocha scored a career-best nine goals to help his team to finish in eighth position. His teammates included compatriots
Kay
The name Kay is found both as a surname (see Kay (surname)) and as a given name. In English-speaking countries, it is usually a feminine name, often a short form of Katherine or one of its variants; but it is also used as a first name in its own ...
and
Rambé, and he was released from contract on 11 April 2017.
Tosno
On 7 June 2017, Rocha joined
Russian Premier League side
FC Tosno on a three-year deal. He helped them win the
domestic cup
A domestic cup (also known as association cup or national cup) is a type of sports tournament, particularly common in association football. This tournament type is notable for its participation by professional and amateur teams from many levels of ...
in his
only season, scoring the decisive
penalty kick in the semi-final
shootout against
FC Spartak Moscow and also being featured in
the decisive match against
FC Avangard Kursk at the
Volgograd Arena.
International career
Rocha earned his first
cap for
Cape Verde
, national_anthem = ()
, official_languages = Portuguese
, national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole
, capital = Praia
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, demonym ...
on 6 September 2014, in a 3–1 away win over
Niger for the
2015 Africa Cup of Nations
The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, Equatorial Guinea 2015 for sponsorship reasons, was the 30th staging of the Africa Cup of Nations, the international men's football championship of Africa. It was orga ...
qualifiers. Selected for the finals by manager
Rui Águas, he took part in all three group-phase games, which ended in draw and subsequent elimination.
On 1 September 2017, Rocha scored twice to hand his team a 2–1 defeat of
South Africa, their first ever win against their African counterparts.
Career statistics
Club
International goals
:''Scores and results list Cape Verde's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Rocha goal.''
Honours
Tosno
*
Russian Cup:
2017–18[
]
References
External links
*
Portuguese League profile
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rocha, Nuno
1992 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Praia
Cape Verdean footballers
Footballers from Santiago, Cape Verde
Association football midfielders
Primeira Liga players
Liga Portugal 2 players
Segunda Divisão players
C.S. Marítimo players
Liga I players
CS Universitatea Craiova players
Russian Premier League players
FC Tosno players
Cape Verde international footballers
2015 Africa Cup of Nations players
Cape Verdean expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in Portugal
Expatriate footballers in Romania
Expatriate footballers in Russia
Cape Verdean expatriate sportspeople in Portugal
Cape Verdean expatriate sportspeople in Romania
Cape Verdean expatriate sportspeople in Russia