Hugo Valdir Romão Cardoso (born 1 January 1984), known as Valdir, is a Portuguese retired

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 played as a

left back 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 Olhão,

Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has it ...

, Valdir finished his formation with Sporting CP, but could only appear as a senior for their reserves. After two loans, at

A.D. Ovarense Associação Desportiva Ovarense commonly known as simply as Ovarense is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Ovar, Aveiro. The club was founded on 19 December 1921. It currently plays at the Estádio Marques da Silva which they have playe ...

and C.F. Estrela da Amadora, making 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 with the latter club, he was released in June 2006. Subsequently, Valdir represented

Associação Naval 1º de Maio Associação Naval 1º de Maio or Associação Naval 1893, commonly known as Naval, is a Portuguese football club based in Figueira da Foz, Coimbra District. Founded on 1 May 1893, it plays in the Division of Honour in the Coimbra Football Associ ...

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 ...

and

Rio Ave F.C. 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 Atlanti ...

in his country, always being second or third-choice in his position. He spent the second part of the 2008–09 campaign abroad, with Standard Liège, meeting the same fate – no appearances whatsoever. In the summer of 2009, Valdir joined top division team

, only appearing once for the Vila do Conde side in competitive matches in two seasons combined (73 minutes in a 1–5 league home loss against

S.C. Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense () is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth tier of Portuguese football. It holds home matches at the ...

, on 28 March 2010).

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Valdir Cardoso 1984 births Living people People from Olhão Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Sporting CP B players A.D. Ovarense players C.F. Estrela da Amadora players Associação Naval 1º de Maio players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Rio Ave F.C. players Standard Liège players Girabola players C.R.D. Libolo players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Angola Footballers from Faro District