Rafael Avelino Pereira Pinto Barbosa (born 29 March 1996) 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 an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

for

S.C. Farense Sporting Clube Farense, simply known as Farense, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Faro in the district of the same name and the region of Algarve. Founded in 1910, the club will play the 2021–22 season in the Liga Portugal ...

Club career

Sporting CP

Born in Amarante, Porto District, Barbosa joined Sporting CP's youth academy at the age of 12. On 12 September 2015, he made his professional debut with the reserve team, playing 50 minutes in a 4–0 away win against

Clube Oriental de Lisboa Clube Oriental de Lisboa is a Portuguese football club based in Lisbon. Founded in 1946, it currently competes in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home games at ''Campo Engenheiro Carlos Salema'', with an 8,500 capacity. History Clube Orienta ...

in the Segunda Liga. He scored his first goal in the competition a month later, helping the visitors defeat

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 ...

3–2. After half a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

on loan at fellow league club

C.F. União Clube de Futebol União, commonly known as União or União da Madeira, was a Portuguese association football, football club based in Funchal, Madeira, notable for its six appearances in the Portuguese top-flight Primeira Liga, between the 1989� ...

, Barbosa returned to Sporting B and netted eight times in 2017–18 from 34 appearances, in a final relegation to the

third division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

. In the ensuing summer, he was loaned to

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

of 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, ...

. Barbosa played his first match in the Portuguese top flight on 13 August 2018, coming on as a 73rd-minute substitute for Felipe Macedo in a 0–2 home loss to

Boavista FC Boavista Futebol Clube, commonly known as Boavista (), is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Porto. Founded on 1 August 1903 by British entrepreneurs and Portuguese textile workers (thus the "FC" being appended – the British way as oppos ...

. On 30 September, during a game in the newly created under-23 league against S.L. Benfica, he was assaulted by the chairman of Portimonense's PLSC Rodiney Sampaio, initially pressing charges for the incident but sorting the situation out shortly after.

Tondela

On 18 August 2020, Barbosa signed a three-year contract with

C.D. Tondela Clube Desportivo de Tondela () is a Portuguese professional football club that plays in Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. They are based in the town of Tondela, located in Viseu District, and play in the Estádio João Cardoso ...

. On 23 October, he scored in a 1–0 home victory over Portimonense for his first ever goal in the top tier.

International career

Barbosa won his only cap for the Portugal under-21 team on 5 September 2017, replacing Benfica's

João Carvalho João António Antunes Carvalho (born 9 March 1997) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Estoril on loan from Olympiacos. Club career Benfica Born in Castanheira de Pera, Leiria District, Carvalho jo ...

early into the second half of a 2–0 home defeat of

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

in the 2019 UEFA European Championship qualifiers.

Honours

Paços de Ferreira * Segunda Liga: 2018–19

References

External links

*
Portuguese League profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barbosa, Rafael 1996 births Living people People from Amarante, Portugal Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Porto District Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Sporting CP B players C.F. União players Portimonense S.C. players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players G.D. Estoril Praia players C.D. Tondela players S.C. Farense players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers