Paulo André Rodrigues Oliveira (born 8 January 1992) 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

centre-back 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 ...

for

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 Braga. He made over 150

appearances for Vitória de Guimarães, Sporting CP and Braga, winning the Taça de Portugal with the first two clubs in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

respectively. Abroad, he played regularly for four seasons with Eibar in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

. Oliveira appeared in one match for

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, in 2015.

Club career

Vitória Guimarães

Born in Vila Nova de Famalicão,

Braga District The district of Braga ( pt, Distrito de Braga ) is a district in the northwest of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Braga, and it is bordered by the district of Viana do Castelo in the north, Vila Real in the east, Spain ( Galicia) ...

, Oliveira was a youth product at Vitória de Guimarães, joining the club's ranks at the age of 13. He made his professional debut in the 2011–12 season, on loan to

F.C. Penafiel Futebol Clube de Penafiel ( or ) is a Portuguese Association football, football club founded on 8 February 1951 and based in the city of Penafiel, Portugal, Penafiel. Brief history Penafiel first reached the Portuguese Liga, first division in Po ...

in the Segunda Liga. Oliveira returned for the 2012–13 campaign, but started with the reserves also in the second tier. His first official appearance with the main squad occurred on 5 January 2013, as he played the full 90 minutes in a 0–0 away draw against

Gil Vicente F.C. 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 ...

in the

. He also contributed four appearances in the Minho team's successful campaign in the Taça de Portugal, including the final win over S.L. Benfica.

Sporting CP

On 19 May 2014, Oliveira signed a five-year deal with Sporting CP of the same league. He appeared in 40 competitive games in his

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

and scored three goals, helping to a third-place finish and subsequent qualification for 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 competit ...

; he made his debut in the competition on 30 September 2014, coming on as a 64th-minute substitute for Maurício in a 0–1 group stage home loss to Chelsea. The following 22 March, he was sent off in the 4–1 win over his previous club also at the Estádio José Alvalade. Subsequently, Oliveira was only third or fourth-choice stopper for the

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 ...

-led side.

Eibar

On 17 July 2017, Oliveira moved to

SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in eu, Eibar Kirol Elkartea) is a professional Spanish football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country. Founded on 30 November 1940, the team currently plays in the Segunda División, the s ...

on a four-year contract; in the process, the €3.5 million transfer fee paid for his services became the Spanish club's highest ever, whilst Sporting remained entitled to 30% of his rights and a rebuy option after the first three years. He finished his first season in

with 26 games, as his team finished in ninth place. Oliveira scored his only goal in the Spanish top division on 17 August 2019, but he also put on past his own net in the 2–1 away defeat against

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, S.A.D. (, ca, Reial Club Deportiu Mallorca , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or just Mallorca is a Spanish professional football club based in Palma on the island of Majorca in ...

. The following 4 January, he was dismissed at the end of a 1–0 loss at Valencia CF.

Braga

Oliveira returned to his country after Eibar's relegation, signing a four-year deal at S.C. Braga on 28 June 2021. He scored his first goal for the club on 26 September, opening a 1–1 draw at

C.D. Santa Clara Clube Desportivo Santa Clara is a Portuguese football club from Ponta Delgada, Azores. They play in the 13,277-seat Estádio de São Miguel. They are the most successful football team from the Azores Islands as the only team from the archipelag ...

International career

Oliveira earned 46 caps for Portugal at youth level, including 23 for the under-21s. He made his only appearance for the full side on 31 March 2015, starting in a 2–0

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 * ...

defeat against

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

in Estoril.

Personal life

Oliveira was cousin to fellow footballer Afonso Rodrigues.

Career statistics

Honours

Vitória Guimarães * Taça de Portugal:

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 ...

Sporting CP *Taça de Portugal: 2014–15 * Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira:

Braga *

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 ...

: 2023–24 Portugal U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the compe ...

runner-up:

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oliveira, Paulo 1992 births Living people Sportspeople from Vila Nova de Famalicão Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Braga District Men's association football central defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Vitória S.C. players F.C. Penafiel players Vitória S.C. B players Sporting CP footballers Sporting CP B players S.C. Braga players La Liga players SD Eibar footballers Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain