Rúben Rafael de Melo Silva Pinto (born 24 April 1992) 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 for Hungarian club

FC Fehérvár 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 Pakist ...

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 ...

Club career

Benfica

Born in

Odivelas Odivelas ( or ) is a city and a municipality in Lisbon metropolitan area, Portugal, in the Lisbon District and the historical and cultural Estremadura Province. The municipality is located 10 km northwest of Lisbon. The present Mayor is Hugo ...

Lisbon metropolitan area The Lisbon Metropolitan Area ( pt, Área Metropolitana de Lisboa; abbreviated as AML) is a metropolitan area in Portugal centered on Lisbon, the capital and largest city of the country. The metropolitan area, covering 18 municipalities is the l ...

, Pinto joined

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional association football, football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system, Portuguese footba ...

's youth system in 2004, aged 12. He was promoted to the first team for the 2011–12 season, being limited to a sole bench presence in that first year; in June 2011 he signed his first professional contract, running until 2015 with a €30 million clause. Pinto made his senior debut in the 2012–13 campaign, competing with the reserves in the Segunda Liga. He made his first appearance in the competition on 28 April 2013, starting and playing 73 minutes in the 1–1 home draw against

F.C. Arouca Futebol Clube de Arouca () is a football club based in Arouca, Porto Metropolitan Area, Portugal. Founded in 1951, the club plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Estádio Municipal de Arouca, with a 5,000-seat capacity. History Founde ...

. Pinto scored his first goal in the second division on 26 August 2013, in a 3–0 home win over

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

. On 25 January of the following year, he was again an unused substitute for the main squad, in a game against

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 ...

in the group stage of the

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual football club competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the Primeira Liga and LigaPro, the top two tier ...

. On 7 January 2015,

F.C. Paços de Ferreira Futebol Clube Paços de Ferreira () is a Portuguese football club based in Paços de Ferreira, Porto district. Founded in 1950, the club competes in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at the 9,077-seater Estádio da Mata Real, a municipal stadi ...

signed Pinto on a loan deal until the end of the season. He scored his first goal 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, ...

on 4 May, playing the full 90 minutes and helping to a 2–2 home draw with

S.C. Braga Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese f ...

Belenenses

On 18 June 2015, Pinto joined

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 ...

on a four-year contract. He made his league debut on 15 August, scoring in the 3–3 home draw against

Rio Ave FC Rio Ave Futebol Clube, commonly known as Rio Ave (), is a Portuguese professional football club based in Vila do Conde, that competes in the Primeira Liga. The club is named after the Ave River, which flows through the town and into the Atlant ...

. Pinto played ten matches in the

2015–16 UEFA Europa League The 2015–16 UEFA Europa League was the 45th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the seventh season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The 2016 UEFA Europa League Final w ...

(qualifying rounds included, all starts), helping his team to the group phase.

CSKA Sofia

In the beginning of August 2016, Pinto joined

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 ...

on loan with an option to make the move permanent afterwards. On 15 June 2017 the Bulgarian club activated the clause, and he agreed to a three-year deal three days later. In August 2019, Pinto saw himself removed from the first team (alongside

Nikolay Bodurov Nikolay Georgiev Bodurov ( bg, Николай Георгиев Бодуров; born 30 May 1986) is a Bulgarian professional footballer who plays for Pirin Blagoevgrad and the Bulgarian national team. Bodurov plays mainly as a centre back but ...

) by manager

Ljupko Petrović Ljubomir "Ljupko" Petrović ( sr-Cyrl, Љубомир "Љупко" Петровић; born 15 May 1947) is a Serbian professional football manager and former player. He also holds a Bosnian passport. As a manager, Petrović's biggest success was ...

, reportedly for disciplinary reasons.

International career

Pinto earned 65

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for Portugal across six youth levels. On 2 June 2013 he made his debut with the under-21s, coming on midway through the second half of the 2–0

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

defeat of

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pinto, Ruben 1992 births Living people People from Odivelas Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Lisbon District Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players S.L. Benfica B players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players C.F. Os Belenenses players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players PFC CSKA Sofia players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Fehérvár FC players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Hungary