Rafael "Rafa" Vicente Ferreira Santos (born 14 February 1997) 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

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 ...

for Polish club

Stal Mielec Stal Mielec () is a Polish football club based in Mielec, Poland. The club was established on April 10, 1939. Historically, the club has enjoyed great successes within Poland's Ekstraklasa, winning the title twice (in 1973 and 1976) but had under ...

Club career

Santos is a youth product of

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football t ...

Estoril Estoril () is a town in the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a tourist destination, with luxury hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numerous royal families and celebrities, and has host ...

, Real SC, Oeiras and

Casa Pia :''This article refers to the institution. For the child abuse scandal, see Casa Pia child sexual abuse scandal.'' The Casa Pia is a Portuguese institution founded by Maria I, known as ''A Pia'' ("Mary the Pious"), and organized by Police Intendan ...

. He spent most of his early career in the Campeonato de Portugal . He began his senior career with Moura, and followed that with stints at Olímpico Montijo, Amora Fátima, and

Oriental The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...

. On 19 June 2019, he signed a three-year contract with

Belenenses SAD B-SAD is a Portuguese football club from Lisbon founded on 30 June 2018 as an independent entity. A rebel offshoot of Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, they last played in the Primeira Liga, being relegated to Liga Portugal 2 for 2022–23. They ...

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, ...

. Santos was called to the senior team after a

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

outbreak hit the squad. One of only 9 starters in the squad for the match, he made his professional debut with B-SAD in a 7–0

loss to Benfica on 24 July 2021 that ended up being called off. On 14 July 2023,

Ekstraklasa Poland Ekstraklasa (), meaning "Extra Class" in Polish, named PKO Ekstraklasa since the 2019–20 season due to its sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is the top Polish professional league for men's association football teams. Contested by 18 cl ...

side

announced the signing of Santos on a two-year deal, with an option for another year.

References

External links

* 1997 births Living people Footballers from Cascais Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football midfielders B-SAD players Clube Olímpico do Montijo players C.D. Fátima players Clube Oriental de Lisboa players Real S.C. players Stal Mielec Primeira Liga players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Ekstraklasa players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Poland {{Portugal-footy-bio-stub