Rui Pedro Couto Ramalho (born 2 July 1988), known as Rui Pedro, 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Club career

Born in Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto District, Rui Pedro joined

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

's youth system in 1998, at the age of 10. He was promoted to the main squad for 2007–08, but his input would consist of 45 minutes in a 0–0 away draw against

C.D. Fátima Centro Desportivo de Fátima, simply known as Fátima, is a Portuguese football club based in Fátima, in the municipality of Ourém. Founded in 1966, it holds home matches at ''Estádio Papa Francisco'', with a capacity of 1,545 spectators. Clu ...

in the

Portuguese League Cup 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 ...

. He finished the season on loan, appearing rarely for fellow

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, ...

side

C.F. Estrela da Amadora Club Football Estrela da Amadora (), sometimes just Estrela, is a Portuguese sports club (predominantly football) based in Amadora, northwest of Lisbon. It's the successor of Clube de Futebol Estrela da Amadora, founded in 1932 and extinct in ...

. Rui Pedro spent the following three years out on loan, appearing for three Segunda Liga clubs and playing and scoring regularly for the last two,

Gil Vicente F.C. Gil Vicente Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Gil Vicente, founded in 1924, is a Portuguese football club that plays in Barcelos. It competes in the Primeira Liga, the top division of football in the country, and it is named after the Portugues ...

and

Leixões SC 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. Leixões Sport Club The Port of Leixões ( pt, P ...

. In summer 2011 he left Porto by mutual agreement and signed for three years with CFR Cluj in

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 ...

, joining a host of compatriots at the

Liga I The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It is the country's top ...

team, including manager

Jorge Costa Jorge Paulo Costa Almeida (born 14 October 1971) is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a central defender, currently manager of Académico de Viseu. Nicknamed ''Bicho'' (animal) and ''Tanque'' (tank) by his colleagues and fans for ...

. On 20 November of the following year he netted the first

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

of his professional career, scoring all three goals in a 3–1 home win over S.C. Braga in the group stage of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

. Rui Pedro returned to Portugal on 8 July 2014, joining Académica de Coimbra on a two-year deal. He netted six times in his

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

to help his team narrowly avoid relegation, but they did go down the following campaign. On 26 June 2017, Rui Pedro was signed by

Nemzeti Bajnokság I The Nemzeti Bajnokság (, "National Championship"), also known as NB I, is the top level of the Hungarian football league system. The league is officially named OTP Bank Liga after its title sponsor OTP Bank. UEFA currently ranks the league 28th ...

club

Ferencvárosi TC Ferencvárosi Torna Club, known as Ferencváros (), Fradi, or simply FTC, is a professional football club based in Ferencváros, Budapest, Hungary, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, the top flight of Hungarian football. Ferencváros wa ...

for three years, from Bulgaria's

PFC CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

International career

All youth categories comprised, Rui Pedro earned 66 caps for

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and scored 20 goals. On 25 March 2009 he, alongside teammate

Bruno Pereirinha Bruno Alexandre Marques Pereirinha (born 2 March 1988) is a Portuguese former footballer. He played mainly as a right midfielder, also being able to operate as an attacking right-back. He spent most of his professional career with Sporting CP, ...

, was suspended by under-21 coach Carlos Queiroz after both attempted an unsuccessful backpass

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

during a match against

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

for the

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

International Tournament (the score was then at 2–0 for the hosts).

Club statistics

Honours

CFR Cluj *

: 2011–12

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rui Pedro 1988 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Vila Nova de Gaia Men's association football forwards Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Padroense F.C. players FC Porto players C.F. Estrela da Amadora players Portimonense S.C. players Gil Vicente F.C. players Leixões S.C. players Académica de Coimbra (football) players A.D. Sanjoanense players Liga I players CFR Cluj players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players PFC CSKA Sofia players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Ferencvárosi TC footballers Szombathelyi Haladás footballers Diósgyőri VTK players Mezőkövesdi SE footballers Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Romania Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Hungary