Stélvio Rosa da Cruz (born 24 January 1989), known simply as Stélvio, is an

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

n 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 Luxembourg club

Jeunesse Esch Jeunesse Esch (full name ''Association Sportive la Jeunesse d'Esch/Alzette'') is a football club, based in Esch-sur-Alzette, in south-western Luxembourg. The side play in the National Division, the highest league in the country, and have won th ...

as a

defensive 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

Stélvio was born in

Luanda Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...

. A product of

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 ...

's youth academy, he made his Portuguese

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, ...

debut on 11 November 2007, coming on as a 60th-minute substitute in a 3–0 home win 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 ...

. On 4 July 2009, after two seasons in the first team with intermittent use, Stélvio was loaned to

U.D. Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria, commonly known as União de Leiria (), is a Portuguese football club based in Leiria, central Portugal. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home matches at Estádio Dr. M ...

( recently returned to the top division) in 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 ...

-long loan. However, in late January 2010, he moved to his homeland and signed for C.D. Primeiro de Agosto, also on loan. Stélvio was released by Braga on 31 August 2011. He then joined C.R. Caála, returning to the Angolan

Girabola Girabola, or ''Campeonato Nacional de Futebol em Séniores Masculinos'', is the top division of Angolan football. It is organized by the Angolan Football Federation. The league winner and runner-up qualify for the CAF Champions League. Gira ...

. In July 2019, after six years in the

Luxembourg National Division The National Division ( lb, Nationaldivisioun, french: Division Nationale, german: Nationaldivision) is the highest football league in Luxembourg. Until 2011, it was known as the BGL Ligue, after the Luxembourg Football Federation managed to sea ...

at the service of

F91 Dudelange F91 Dudelange (; lb, F91 Diddeleng, italic=no, ) is a Luxembourger professional football club based in Dudelange which plays in the Luxembourg National Division. It was formed in 1991 as a merger between three teams in the town: Alliance Dudel ...

where he won several team honours, the 30-year-old Stélvio moved to Belgium with

R.E. Virton Royal Excelsior Virton is a Belgian football club, based in the city of Virton, in Luxembourg province. The club will participate in Belgian National Division 1 from 2023–24 after relegation from Challenger Pro League in 2022–23. They were p ...

on a one-year contract.

International career

Stélvio represented

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 ...

at under-21 level. He switched allegiance to his native

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

in 2009, being part of the squad that appeared in the following year's

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 ...

. In October 2018, after an absence of eight years, Stélvio was recalled to the national team ahead of a

2019 Africa Cup of Nations The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2019 or CAN 2019), known as the Total 2019 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football champion ...

qualifier In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", provi ...

against

Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...

. He was selected for the squad that reached the finals in Egypt by manager

Srđan Vasiljević Srđan Vasiljević (; born 1 April 1973) is a Serbian football manager and former player. Playing career Vasiljević came through the youth system of Red Star Belgrade. He went on to play for Radnički Beograd, Borac Čačak (twice), Obilić, ...

.Palancas Negras aumentam confiança de Srdjan Vasiljevic (Sable Antelopes increase Srdjan Vasiljevic's confidence)

Jornal de Angola ''Jornal de Angola'' was the only daily newspaper in Angola until 2008 and after the independence of the country in 1975. The newspaper's executive editor is Diogo Paixão. The organization uses wire feeds from ANGOP, Agence France-Presse, Reuter ...

, 11 June 2019 (in Portuguese)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stelvio 1989 births Living people Angolan emigrants to Portugal Portuguese sportspeople of Angolan descent Sportspeople from Luanda Angolan footballers Portuguese footballers Association football midfielders Primeira Liga players S.C. Braga players U.D. Leiria players Girabola players C.D. Primeiro de Agosto players C.R.D. Libolo players C.R. Caála players Cypriot First Division players Alki Larnaca FC players Luxembourg National Division players F91 Dudelange players Jeunesse Esch players Belgian First Division B players R.E. Virton players RWDM47 players Portugal youth international footballers Portugal under-21 international footballers Angola international footballers 2010 Africa Cup of Nations players 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players Angolan expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Expatriate footballers in Luxembourg Expatriate footballers in Belgium Angolan expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Angolan expatriate sportspeople in Belgium