José Paulo Sousa da Silva (born 13 May 1975), known as Paulo Sousa, 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 ...

who played mainly as 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 ...

Club career

Sousa was born in

Lousada Lousada () is a town and municipality of the Porto district, in northern Portugal. The population in 2011 was 47,387, in an area of 96.08 km². It includes the site of Ancient Magnetum (Portuguese Magneto), in the civil parish Meinedo, which ...

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 ...

. During his career he played for S.C. Freamunde, F.C. Penafiel 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 s ...

, also having an unsuccessful spell with

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

APOP Kinyras FC APOP Kinyras FC ( el, ΑΠΟΠ, Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Ομιλος Πέγειας Κινύρας, ''Athlitikos Podosfairikos Omilos Pegeias Kinyras'', "Athletic Football Club Peyia Kinyras") was a Cypriot football club fr ...

from August to December 2007, after which he returned to Paços and re-joined central midfield teammate

Pedrinha Pedro Ricardo Marques Pereira Monteiro (born 3 May 1978), known as Pedrinha, is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. He amassed Primeira Liga totals of 184 matches and 11 goals over eight seasons, all wi ...

, with whom he shared nine professional seasons. In June 2011, after two injury-ravaged campaigns with Paços, Sousa retired from football at the age of 36, amassing Primeira Liga totals of 183 matches and three goals for the club. He made his debut in the top flight on 12 August 2001, playing the full 90 minutes in a 3–1 home win against C.F. Os Belenenses.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sousa, Paulo 1975 births Living people People from Lousada Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Porto District Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players S.C. Freamunde players F.C. Penafiel players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Cypriot First Division players APOP Kinyras FC players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus