Tiago Carlos Morais Valente (born 24 April 1985) 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

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Club career

Born in

Macedo de Cavaleiros Macedo de Cavaleiros () is a city and List of municipalities of Portugal, municipality in northeastern Portugal, in Bragança District. The population in 2011 was 15,776, in an area of 699.14 km². History During antiquity, the region was oc ...

Bragança District Bragança District ( pt, Distrito de Bragança ; mwl, Çtrito de Bergáncia) is a traditional political division of Portugal, in the northeast corner bordering on Spain (Castile and Leon and Galicia), covering 7.4% of the nation's continental l ...

, Valente started playing football with

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 s ...

, joining the club's youth system at the age of 8 and being promoted to the first team in 2004, making 15 Segunda Liga appearances with two goals in his first season. For 2005–06 he was loaned to

Gondomar S.C. Gondomar Sport Club is a Portuguese football club based in Gondomar, Porto District. Founded on 1 May 1921, it currently plays in the fourth-tier Campeonato de Portugal, holding home games at '' Estádio de São Miguel'', with a capacity of 2.45 ...

in the same league, subsequently returning to Paços; he made his

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 for the latter on 26 November 2006, coming on as a 90th-minute substitute in a 2–0 home win against

C.D. Aves Clube Desportivo das Aves (), commonly known as Desportivo das Aves, or simply as Aves, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Vila das Aves, Santo Tirso. The club was founded on 12 November 1930 and plays at the Estádio do Clube ...

. Valente was linked with a move to English

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

side

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

in January 2008 for a reported fee of £1.5 million, but nothing came of it. In the same month of the following year, he was loaned to Aves until the end of the campaign, and a permanent contract was agreed in July 2009. In June 2012, after three full seasons in the second division, playing all the games and minutes in 2011–12 to help his team finish in third position, narrowly missing out on promotion, Valente returned to Paços de Ferreira for a second spell.

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* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Valente, Tiago 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Bragança District Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Gondomar S.C. players C.D. Aves players F.C. Penafiel players Vitória F.C. players Varzim S.C. players A.R. São Martinho players F.C. Tirsense players Ekstraklasa players III liga players Lechia Gdańsk players Lechia Gdańsk II players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Poland