João Paulo Dias Fernandes (born 9 November 1992), commonly known as Paulinho, 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 ...

who plays for Primeira Liga club

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

as a striker. He amassed Primeira Liga totals of 177 matches and 54 goals over seven seasons, representing

Gil Vicente Gil Vicente (; c. 1465c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often ref ...

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

and

(for whom he signed in January 2021 for €16 million), winning the

2019–20 Taça da Liga The 2019–20 Taça da Liga was the thirteenth edition of the Taça da Liga (also known as Allianz Cup for sponsorship reasons), a football league cup competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional and contested exclusively ...

and the

2020–21 Taça de Portugal The 2020–21 Taça de Portugal (also known as Taça de Portugal Placard for sponsorship reasons) was the 81st edition of the Taça de Portugal, the premier knockout competition in Portuguese football. A total of 165 clubs compete in this editio ...

with the second of those clubs and the 2020–21 national championship and the 2021 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira with the third. In the Segunda Liga, he played with Trofense and Gil. Paulinho won his first

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for

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in 2020, scoring twice in his first appearance.

Club career

Trofense

Born in Barcelos, Braga District, Paulinho started playing with local amateurs Santa Maria. In 2012 he signed with Segunda Liga club Trofense, making his debut as a professional on 29 July by playing the full 90 minutes in a 5–1 away loss against Aves in the group stage of the Taça da Liga. His maiden appearance in the league took place on 12 August, in a 2–0 defeat to the same opponent where he also started.

Gil Vicente

In the 2013 off-season, after scoring 11 goals during the season, Paulinho moved to the Primeira Liga with

. He made his debut in the competition on 18 August, coming on as a 49th-minute substitute in a 2–0 home win over Académica de Coimbra. He netted his first goal on 24 November of the same year, but in a 3–2 loss at Marítimo. During the 2016–17 campaign, with the team again in the second tier, Paulinho scored a career-best 19 times for a runner-up position in the individual charts.

Braga

On 24 May 2017, Paulinho moved to

on a four-year contract. He finished his first year as team top scorer at 13 – 17 across all competitions – helping them to qualify for the group phase of the

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. ...

after ranking fourth in the league. Paulinho was the top scorer of the 2018–19 Taça da Liga, netting braces in group stage wins against Nacional (5–0 at home) and

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 ...

(4–0 away). In the next year's edition he scored twice for the winners, including a last-minute winner over

in the semi-final. On the league front he set a new personal best in the top flight, including a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a 5–1 away rout of Paços de Ferreira on 10 July 2020. On 26 November 2020, Paulinho scored in a 3–3 home draw with

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

in the Europa League group stages; in doing so he beat Alan's record of 11 European goals for Braga. He scored all of his side's goals in a 3–1 victory against

Estoril Estoril () is a town in the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a tourist destination, with luxury hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numerous royal families and celebrities, and has h ...

on 17 December to make the League Cup semi-finals.

Sporting CP

On 1 February 2021, Paulinho joined Sporting on a deal running until June 2025 for a club-record €16 million fee, reuniting with former Braga manager Rúben Amorim; as part of the arrangement, Cristian Borja and Andraž Šporar moved in the opposite direction. On 11 May, his 36th-minute goal was the only of the home fixture against Boavista, and the club won the domestic league for the first time in 19 years. Paulinho scored three times in the group stage of the

2021–22 UEFA Champions League The 2021–22 UEFA Champions League was the 67th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 30th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. Real Madri ...

, helping his team progress as runners-up. On 29 December 2021, he netted a hat-trick in a 3–2 home win over

Portimonense Portimonense Sporting Clube is a Portuguese sports club based in Portimão. Founded on 14 August 1914, it is most notable for its professional football team, which currently plays in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. It al ...

in the domestic league. Paulinho topped the scoring charts of the 2022–23 League Cup with eight goals. However, in the 2–0 final loss to

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 ...

, he was

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for two quick

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, being later handed a three-match suspension for insulting the refereeing team.

International career

Paulinho won his only

for the Portugal under-21 team on 14 November 2012, playing the last 18 minutes of the 3–2 friendly defeat of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. In May 2018, he was included by full side manager Fernando Santos in a preliminary 35-man squad for the upcoming edition of the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

in Russia, but did not make the final cut. On 11 November 2020, Paulinho made his senior debut in a home exhibition against

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...

, scoring twice in a 7–0 win. In October 2022, he was one of 55 players pre-selected for the

2022 World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022; it is the first ...

in Qatar.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Portugal's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Paulinho goal.''

Honours

Braga *

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 ...

: 2020–21 * Taça da Liga: 2019–20 Sporting CP * Primeira Liga: 2020–21 *Taça da Liga: 2021–22 *

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 ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

Individual *Taça da Liga top scorer: 2022–23 (8 goals)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paulinho (footballer, born 1992 11) 1992 births Living people People from Barcelos, Portugal Sportspeople from Braga District Portuguese footballers Association football forwards Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Santa Maria F.C. players C.D. Trofense players Gil Vicente F.C. players S.C. Braga players Sporting CP footballers Portugal under-21 international footballers Portugal international footballers