Toni Brito Silva Sá (born 15 September 1993) is a Bissau-Guinean 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 winger for

FC Aksu FC Aksu ( kk, Ақсу футбол клубы, Aqsu fýtbol klýby) is a Kazakhstani football club based in Aksu. History On 19 January 2022, Ruslan Kostyshyn was appointed as Aksu's Head Coach. Domestic history Honours *Kazakhstan Secon ...

in the

Kazakhstan Premier League The Kazakhstan Professional Football League ( kk, Қазақстан Премьер Лигасы, ''Qazaqstan Premer Ligasy''), commonly referred to as Kazakh Premier League or simply Premier League, is the top division of football in Kazakhstan ...

Career

Early years

Silva kicked off his career with the youth academy of

Real Sport Clube Real Sport Clube is a Portuguese football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popu ...

in 2007, and joined Benfica's junior team a season later. He made 7 appearances for the junior team before having a short stint with Chelsea reserves between 2008 and 2009. Then he joined

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

still with the reserves before getting a professional contract in 2011.

Northampton Town (loan)

Silva joined

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

on a one-month youth loan on 14 February 2012 making his debut the same day against

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...

. Only a few hours into his time with Northampton he came on as a 74th-minute substitute for

Adebayo Akinfenwa Saheed Adebayo Akinfenwa (born 10 May 1982) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. Akinfenwa's professional breakthrough came at Doncaster Rovers, having spent time up until then in the lower leagues of English f ...

Dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. A ...

past three Wimbledon players his shot was parried and followed in by Luke Guttridge for the winning goal in a 1–0 win. Northampton manager

Aidy Boothroyd Adrian Neil Boothroyd (born 8 February 1971) is an English former footballer who is currently the manager of Indian Super League club Jamshedpur. At club level, he was manager of Watford from 2005 to 2008. During his time with Watford, he was r ...

after the match said; "We don't want to get excited too soon, but he's got

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

quality", and added "He's dribbled past two or three people and he has got a great goalscoring record". On 22 February 2012, his loan with Northampton was extended until the end of the 2011–12 season. On 13 March, he scored his first senior goal when he scored the only goal as his loan club won away at

Dagenham & Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Often known simply as Dag ...

. At the end of his loan spell he had played 15 times.

Barnsley

On 23 July 2012,

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

signed Silva from Liverpool on a free transfer on a two-year deal. After his move, Silva was given number 20 shirt. Manager Keith Hill comment on Silva saying; "He's left-footed and likes playing on the right," and added "He's quick with and without the ball, he's young and enthusiastic. There's a lot of development we've got to put into this player to make him into a £3 million player and I believe we will be able to do that." Ahead of the start of the season, Silva suffered an injury on his hamstring during a friendly match against

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

and would be out of action for three months. After four-month lay-off, Silva finally made his debut, coming on as a 71st-minute substitute for

Matt Done Matthew Done (born 22 July 1988) is an English former professional footballer who is now a Player Development Phase Coach at club Port Vale. In a seventeen-year playing career he scored 60 goals in 592 league and cup appearances, playing mostl ...

, in a 0–1 loss at

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

. Since then, Silva was barely used in the first team. However, on 25 January 2013, the ''

Barnsley Chronicle The ''Barnsley Chronicle'', published in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, is one of the UK's oldest provincial newspapers and one of the few weeklies still in private ownership. It was launched in 1858 and celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2008. It i ...

'' published an article saying he was still in

David Flitcroft David John Flitcroft (born 14 January 1974) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the director of football at club Port Vale. His older brother is the former Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City player Garry ...

's plans but is currently working hard in the under-21s to try and force his way into the team by improving his game when he is not in possession. On 27 March 2013, he was loaned to Dagenham & Redbridge until 23 April. He played four

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

matches for the East London side, and in June, he was released from Barnsley.

CSKA Sofia

On 17 December 2013, Silva signed a six-month contract with Bulgarian side

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 ...

, after a successful one-month trial period with the club. He marked with a goal his league début on 24 February 2014 against Chernomorets Burgas at

Lazur Stadium efbet Arena ( bg, „Ефбет Арена“, en, 'efbet Arena' ) is a multi-purpose stadium in Burgas, Bulgaria. It is currently used for football (soccer), football matches and is the home ground of PFC Neftochimic Burgas, Neftochimic 1962 ...

in a 2–1 win; he came on as a substitute and scored the opening goal in the 72nd minute. A week later, Silva scored his second goal in a 3–0 home win over

Slavia Sofia PFC Slavia Sofia ( bg, ПФК Славия София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently competes in the top tier of the Bulgarian football league system, the First League. Slavia's home ground ...

. After the fantastic start with the club, on 7 March 2014 his contract with CSKA was extended till June 2017. Silva finished the 2013–14 season with three goals in 15 games. Silva netted his first goal of the 2014–15 season against

Haskovo Haskovo ( bg, Хасково ) is a city in the region of Northern Thrace in southern Bulgaria and the administrative centre of the Haskovo Province, not far from the borders with Greece and Turkey. According to Operative Program Regional Develo ...

at Balgarska Armia in a 4–0 win on 10 August 2014. On 25 October he scored his fourth goal in the campaign, opening the scoring in

the Eternal derby The Eternal derby of Bulgarian football or simply The Eternal derby ( bg, Вечното дерби) is the name of the local derby Association football, football match between the two most popular and successful football clubs in Sofia and Bulg ...

against

Levski Sofia Levski Sofia ( bg, Левски София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 b ...

, which CSKA won 3–0. After the winter break Silva and the rest of his CSKA Sofia teammates experienced a significant drop in form, with the team unable to score a goal for 10 consecutive matches. This negative streak was ended after Silva netted an equalizing goal in the 2–3 loss against

Botev Plovdiv Profesionalen Futbolen Klub Botev, commonly referred to as Botev Plovdiv ( bg, „Ботев“ Пловдив, ) or simply Botev (within its associated city), is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, that competes ...

on 16 May 2015, during the second half of which he also received a red card after an altercation with Daniel Zlatkov and Plamen Nikolov. In April 2015, due to the ultras' disappointment with the team's performances and the lack of goals provided by Silva, the player was subjected to what was perceived to be racist chanting by a small number of the CSKA Sofia supporters.

Şanlıurfaspor and return to Portugal

After a short stint with Turkish team

Şanlıurfaspor Şanlıurfa S.K. is a Turkish sports club located in Şanlıurfa. The football team currently plays in the TFF Second League TFF 2. Lig (Turkish Football Federation Second League), is the third level in the Turkish football league system. It wa ...

, Silva signed a -year contract (with the option for an additional year) with

LigaPro The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Prim ...

club União Madeira.

Levadiakos

On 9 September 2016, has signed with Greek

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

club

Levadiakos Levadiakos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Λεβαδειακός) is a Greek professional football club that plays in the Super League Greece. Based in Livadeia, Greece, the club was promoted to the Alpha Ethniki, forerunner of the Super League, afte ...

for an undisclosed fee.

Mamelodi Sundowns

In 2018 Silva had a six month spell with

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n club

Mamelodi Sundowns Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club (simply known as Sundowns) is a South African professional football club based in Mamelodi, Pretoria in the Gauteng province that plays in the Premier Soccer League, the first tier of South African football l ...

Al Ittihad

In January 2019, he joined

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

ian club Al Ittihad on a -year deal.

Astra Giurgiu

On 30 July 2019, Toni Silva signed a two-year contract with

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 ...

n side

Astra Giurgiu Asociația Fotbal Club Astra Giurgiu (), commonly known as Astra Giurgiu or simply Astra, was a Romanian football club based in the city of Giurgiu, Giurgiu County. Founded in 1921 in Ploiești as ''Clubul Sportiv Astra-Română'', it spent th ...

Taraz

On 17 February 2020,

FC Taraz FC Taraz ( kk, Taraz Fýtbol Klýby) is a Kazakhstani professional football club based at the Taraz Central Stadium in Taraz. A leading club in the early years of the Kazakhstan Premier League, they were champions in 1996, and Kazakhstan Cup win ...

announced the signing of Silva.

Tobol

On 18 February 2021,

FC Tobol FC Tobol ( kk, Тобыл футбол клубы, Tobyl Futbol Kluby) is a Kazakh professional football club based at the Central Stadium in Kostanay. They have been members of the Kazakhstan Premier League since its foundation in 1992. They ...

announced the signing of Silva.

Turan

On 14 March 2022,

Turan Turan ( ae, Tūiriiānəm, pal, Tūrān; fa, توران, Turân, , "The Land of Tur") is a historical region in Central Asia. The term is of Iranian origin and may refer to a particular prehistoric human settlement, a historic geographical re ...

announced the signing of Silva.

International career

Silva was born in Guinea-Bissau, but moved to Portugal as a child. He played for the Portugal U17s, and Portugal U18s. He ended up switching to the

Guinea Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...

and made his debut on 4 June 2016, in a 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualification victory over

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

, wherein he scored his debut goal for the team.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and results list Guinea-Bissau's goal tally first.''

References

External links