Paulo Daniel Fernandes Tavares (born 9 December 1985) 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 le ...

who played 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 ...

. He made his first-team debut with

Leixões The Port of Leixões ( pt, Porto de Leixões, ) is one of Portugal's major seaports, located 4 km north of the mouth of the Douro River, in Matosinhos municipality, near the city of Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city i ...

in May 2004 and then spent the next four years on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

with lower league clubs

Padroense Padroense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese football club that competes in the Portuguese Second Division. They were founded in 1922. History The first field of Padroense F. C. was the "Saibreira" before moving to the "stray field" (what is now Hi ...

, Ribeirão, and Estoril. He played in the

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, ...

with Leixões in 2008–09, though the club were relegated the following season. He returned to the Primeira Liga when he signed with

Vitória 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 (b ...

in July 2012 and remained with the club for four years. He joined English club

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

in July 2016. He returned to Portugal and joined

Cova da Piedade Cova da Piedade is a former civil parish in the municipality of Almada, Lisbon metropolitan area, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Almada, Cova da Piedade, Pragal e Cacilhas. The population in 2011 was 19,904, in an area of ...

in August 2017. In February 2018, he travelled to Vietnam to sign for

Hồ Chí Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

. He returned to Portugal to play for Lusitânia in June 2019 and then moved on to Coimbrões in 2022.

Career

Leixões

Paulo Daniel Fernandes Tavares was born in

Massarelos Massarelos () is a former civil parish in the municipality of Porto, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Lordelo do Ouro e Massarelos. The population in 2011 was 6,789, in an area of 1.94 km².Senhora da Hora Senhora da Hora () is a former civil parish in the municipality of Matosinhos in the Greater Porto area, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish São Mamede de Infesta e Senhora da Hora. It was promoted from town (''vila'') to cit ...

. He came through the junior ranks at

to make his first-team debut in the Segunda Liga (second tier) on 9 May 2004, coming on as a 77th-minute substitute for

Bruno China Bruno Manuel Rodrigues Silva (born 5 August 1982), known as Bruno China, is a Portuguese former Association football, footballer who played as a Midfielder#Defensive midfielder, defensive midfielder, currently a Manager (association football), ma ...

in a 1–1 draw with Varzim at the Estádio do Mar. He went on to spend two years at Terceira Divisão (fourth tier) club

, helping them to finish 13th in Série B in 2004–05 and 15th in 2005–06; with the latter campaign seeing the club relegated into the regional leagues (fifth tier). Tavares then joined Ribeirão on

, making 20 appearances in the 2006–07 campaign as the club finished fourth in Segunda Divisão – Série A (third tier). He then featured in 17 league games in the 2007–08 season before moving back up to the Liga de Honra (second tier) with Estoril. He scored two goals in 13 league games for Estoril, who ended the 2007–08 season in seventh place. He returned to the first team at Leixões in 2008, with the club now in the

(first tier). Initially a squad player under José Mota, he featured in just four league games in both the 2008–09 and 2009–10 campaigns. The club were relegated in 2009–10, and Tavares played 12 games in the

2010–11 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 ...

campaign, before he secured a first-team place in the 2011–12, scoring seven goals in 34 appearances.

Vitória Setúbal

Tavares then returned to the Primeira Liga to sign with

in July 2012, now

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

ed by José Mota. He scored twice in 32 games in the

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 ...

season, helping the club to finish two points above the relegation zone. He then scored five goals (including four penalties) in 18 games in 2013–14 as Vitória posted a seventh-place finish, though he missed four months of the season with a fractured toe. He signed a new two-year

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

in April 2014. He scored twice in 32 matches in the 2014–15 campaign as Vitória finished in 14th place, and he featured 22 times in the 2015–16 season as the club finished just one point above the relegation zone. He was offered a new two-year contract by new

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

José Couceiro in May 2016. However, he decided to reject the offer and look for a new club.

Port Vale

Tavares signed a two-year contract with

EFL League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club

in July 2016, in a move that reunited him with former Vitória manager Bruno Ribeiro. He started the first five league games of the 2016–17 season, before picking up a hamstring injury at the end of August. He quickly returned to the first-team, and along with Kjell Knops was only one of two of the club's 11 overseas signings to secure a regular place in the starting eleven. However, Ribeiro resigned on Boxing day, and Tavares found his first-team chances very limited under

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...

Michael Brown so instead used his time to help coach the under-9 and under-10 teams. Tavares left Vale Park after agreeing to a settlement on the remainder of his contract in May 2017.

Later career

On 12 August 2017, Tavares returned to Portugal and signed with newly-

promoted Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

LigaPro club

. He played 16 games for the "Rapazes de Azul-Grená" over the 2017–18 season, and was sent off on his final appearance for the club on 11 February, in a 1–0 defeat to

Vitória S.C. B Vitória Guimarães B is a Portuguese football team founded in 2012. They are the reserve team of Vitória Guimarães. Reserve teams in Portugal play in the same league system as the senior team, rather than in a reserve team league. However, the ...

at the Estádio D. Afonso Henriques. In February 2018, Tavares signed with Vietnamese

V.League 1 The V.League 1 ( vi, Giải bóng đá vô địch quốc gia, lit=National Football League), also called Night Wolf V.League 1 due to sponsorship reasons, is the top professional Association football, football league in Vietnam, controlled by ...

club

. He returned to Portugal and in June 2019 signed with Campeonato de Portugal side Lusitânia. He had an eventful home debut on 12 October, getting sent off for a second yellow card moments after scoring the winning goal in a 2–1 victory over Leça. Lusitânia were second in Serie B when the 2019–20 season was curtailed early due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal The COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal is part of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). On 2 March 2020, the virus was confirmed to have reached the country when it was reporte ...

. He played 23 games in the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season, helping Lusitânia to win promotion into Liga 3. He played 24 games in the 2021–22 season as Lusitânia were relegated back to the fourth tier. He then moved on to Coimbrões.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tavares, Paulo 1985 births Living people Footballers from Porto Portuguese men's footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Leixões S.C. players Padroense F.C. players G.D. Ribeirão players G.D. Estoril Praia players Vitória F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players C.D. Cova da Piedade players Lusitânia F.C. players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Primeira Liga players English Football League players V.League 1 players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in England Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Vietnam Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Vietnam Association football coaches Port Vale F.C. non-playing staff