Paulo José Lopes de Figueiredo (; born 28 November 1972) is an

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

n retired

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

central 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 spent the bulk of his 17-year professional career with Santa Clara, amassing

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, ...

totals of 97 matches and eight goals during three seasons (eight in total with the club). An Angolan international for five years, Figueiredo earned 38

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and represented the nation at the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

and two

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

tournaments.

Club career

Figueiredo was born in

Malanje Malanje is the capital city of Malanje Province in Angola, with a population of 455,000 (2014 census), and a municipality, with a population of 506,847 (2014 census). Projected to be the thirteenth fastest growing city on the African continent be ...

Portuguese Angola Portuguese Angola refers to Angola during the historic period when it was a territory under Portuguese rule in southwestern Africa. In the same context, it was known until 1951 as Portuguese West Africa (officially the State of West Africa). I ...

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

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s, moving to the land of his parents at the age of three. From 1991 to 1996 he played for five clubs, including one spell at

C.F. Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Rest ...

for which he featured only once in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

in the 1991–92 season. In summer 1996, Figueiredo signed for

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 ...

in the second level, scoring five goals in 33 matches in his third year as the team promoted to the

for the first time ever. He made his debut in the competition on 22 August 1999 in a 2–2 home draw against

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 ...

, and made 31 league appearances matches during the 1999–2000 campaign, but the

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

side were immediately relegated back. After four more seasons with Santa Clara (two in the top flight) and nearly 300 official games, Figueiredo moved to the Portuguese lower leagues, splitting 2004–05 with Sport Clube Dragões Sandinenses and

S.C. Lusitânia The Sport Clube Lusitânia (commonly shortened to ''S.C. Lusitânia'') is a sports club located in Angra do Heroísmo on the island of Terceira, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. Besides a football department, the club also has a bask ...

. He then signed with

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

Östers IF Östers Idrottsförening, commonly known as Östers IF or simply Öster, is a Swedish sports club located in Växjö, specializing in Association football, football, and playing in the second tier of Swedish football, Superettan. The club has ...

, being relegated in his first and only season in the

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

. Figueiredo spent 2007–08 with

FC Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakis ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and

C.D. Olivais e Moscavide Clube Desportivo dos Olivais e Moscavide is a centenary club located in the eastern area of Lisbon that distinguishes itself in practice in different levels of football, basketball, American Football and Table Football, in addition to developing ...

in Portugal, without any competitive appearances for the former team. Subsequently, he closed out his career in his homeland after two years with

C.R.D. Libolo Clube Recreativo Desportivo do Libolo, usually known simply as Recreativo do Libolo, is an Angolan multisport club based in Libolo, Cuanza Sul Province. History has it that C.R.D. Libolo resulted as a merger of three different clubs in the vill ...

International career

In 2003, aged almost 31, Figueiredo was invited to play for

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, and returned for the first time in almost 30 years to the country of his birth. After featuring heavily during the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

qualifying campaign – ten games, one goal against

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

on 18 June 2005, in a 1–1 away draw– he was selected to the final stages in Germany, playing in all three group stage matches as the ''Palancas Negras'' managed two draws in their first participation ever. Figueiredo also featured at two

tournaments — a group stage exit in 2006African Nations Cup 2006
at

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

and a quarter-final finish two years later.

International goals

(Angola score listed first, score column indicates score after each Figueiredo goal)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Figueiredo, Paulo 1972 births Living people Footballers from Malanje Angolan people of Portuguese descent Angolan footballers Portuguese footballers Association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players C.F. Os Belenenses players U.F.C.I. Tomar players C.D. Aves players O Elvas C.A.D. players C.D. Santa Clara players S.C. Lusitânia players S.C. Dragões Sandinenses players Varzim S.C. players C.D. Olivais e Moscavide players Allsvenskan players Östers IF players CSM Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț players Girabola players C.R.D. Libolo players Angola international footballers 2006 FIFA World Cup players 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players 2008 Africa Cup of Nations players Angolan expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Romania Angolan expatriate sportspeople in Romania