Nuno Miguel Valente Santos (born 2 March 1999) 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 Vitória de Guimarães.

Club career

Benfica

Born in

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, Santos was a youth player at his city's two major teams,

Boavista F.C. Boavista Futebol Clube, commonly known as Boavista (), is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Porto. Founded on 1 August 1903 by British entrepreneurs and Portuguese textile workers (thus the "FC" being appended – the British way as oppos ...

and

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

, before joining S.L. Benfica in 2012. He made his debut for the reserve team 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 ...

on 8 August 2017 as the season opened with a 2–1 away loss 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 scored his first goal the following 6 January at the end of a 3–1 defeat at

FC Porto B Futebol Clube do Porto B, commonly known as Porto B, is a Portuguese professional football team, which serves as the reserve side of FC Porto. They compete in the Liga Portugal 2, the second division of Portuguese football, and play their home ...

. In 2018–19 he scored a career-best seven goals (adding five in seven matches in the UEFA Youth League), subsequently renewing his contract until 2024. By then

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of Benfica B, Santos was loaned to

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, ...

club

Moreirense F.C. Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, in Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joa ...

on 29 January 2020. He made his top-flight debut four days later by starting in a 5–1 away victory over

Gil Vicente FC 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 ...

. His first goal at the level came on 11 July to win the game at B-SAD. Santos continued to be loaned the following two seasons, to Boavista and

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 stadi ...

. On 19 November 2021, while in service of the latter side, he put his team ahead against his parent club in the fourth round of the Taça de Portugal, but in a 4–1 loss.

Charlotte FC

On 5 August 2022, Santos signed a two-year deal with Charlotte FC. He scored his only

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

goal on 17 September in the 3–2 away defeat of

Chicago Fire FC (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and also spent time with 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 ...

Crown Legacy FC Crown Legacy FC is an American soccer team that is located in Matthews, North Carolina. It is the reserve team of Charlotte FC and participates in MLS Next Pro. History On March 31, 2022, Charlotte FC announced it would field an MLS Next P ...

Vitória Guimarães

Santos returned to Portugal in July 2023, joining top-flight

Vitória S.C. Vitória Sport Clube, commonly known as Vitória de Guimarães, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Guimarães that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top-flight of football in Portugal. Vitória de Guimarães have finished thir ...

on a four-year contract.

International career

Santos was part of

Hélio Sousa Hélio Filipe Dias de Sousa (born 12 August 1969) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder, currently manager of the Bahrain national team. Playing career Known by his first name in his playing days, Hél ...

's Portugal under-19 team that won the 2018 UEFA European Championship in Finland. He made three substitute appearances in the tournament, including one in

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

of the final. On 5 September 2019, Santos earned his first cap for the under-21s, in a 4–0 home defeat of

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

in the 2021 UEFA European Championship qualifiers.

Honours

Benfica *

Campeonato Nacional de Juniores The Campeonato Nacional de Juniores is the top level of the Portuguese football league system for youth players (19-year-old and under). It is administrated by the Portuguese Football Federation The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) ( pt, F ...

: 2017–18 * UEFA Youth League runner-up: 2016–17 Portugal * UEFA European Under-19 Championship:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Santos, Nuno 1999 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Porto Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Boavista F.C. players FC Porto players C.F. Os Belenenses players S.L. Benfica B players Moreirense F.C. players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Vitória S.C. players Major League Soccer players MLS Next Pro players Charlotte FC players Crown Legacy FC players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in the United States