Vítor Manuel Afonso Damas de Oliveira (8 October 1947 – 13 September 2003), known as Damas, was a Portuguese

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 ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. In a 23-year professional career he was mainly linked with Sporting, but he also played for three other teams, including

Racing de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league syst ...

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

. A

Portugal international The Portugal Open in badminton is an international open held annually in Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Sou ...

for 17 years, Damas represented the country at the

1986 World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia had ...

and Euro 1984, both in his mid-to-late 30s.

Club career

Born in Lisbon, Damas made his professional debut with hometown club

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 ...

at the age of just 19. After two years as a backup he became the capital side's undisputed starter, winning two Primeira Liga and three

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

trophies, including the double in 1973–74. Damas moved to Spain in the summer of 1976, signing with

. He was also first choice at the

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

ns, spending

the last The Last may refer to: *The Last (band) The Last is an American, Los Angeles-based, early pop/punk band, formed in 1976 by Joe Nolte with high school bandmates Vitus Matare and Dave Harbison. By 1978 the band included three brothers: Joe (guitar ...

of his four seasons in the Segunda División. Aged nearly 33, Damas returned to Portugal, playing two years apiece with

Vitória S.C. Vitória Sport Clube, commonly known as Vitória de Guimarães, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Guimarães that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top-flight of football in Portugal. Vitória de Guimarães have finished t ...

and Portimonense SC, after which he rejoined Sporting. He still went on to produce five more respectable campaigns, only losing his status in 1988–89 to Uruguayan Rodolfo Rodríguez. Following his retirement at almost 42, Damas remained at Sporting as goalkeepers' coach. Over the course of two separate seasons he acted as

interim manager Interim management is the temporary provision of management resources and skills. Interim management can be seen as the short-term assignment of a proven heavyweight interim executive manager to manage a period of transition, crisis or change with ...

with the ''Lions'', coaching the team to three wins, one draw and two losses. He died aged 55 from cancer, in Lisbon.

International career

Damas earned 29

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 Ja ...

for the Portugal national team, from 6 April 1969 to 11 July 1986. He was second choice at both

UEFA Euro 1984 The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in France from 12 to 27 June 1984. It was the seventh UEFA European Championship, a competition held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. At the time, only eight countries ...

and the 1986 FIFA World Cup, backing up

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904 as ''Sport Lisboa'', Be ...

Manuel Bento Manuel Galrinho Bento (25 June 1948 – 1 March 2007) was a Portuguese professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Bento was best known for his 20-year spell at Benfica, having retired well into his 40s after appearing in nearly 650 off ...

; however, in the latter tournament, the starter suffered a serious

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity i ...

injury in training, and he took the pitch for group stage losses against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

(1–0) and

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

(3–1).

Honours

Sporting CP * Primeira Liga: 1969–70, 1973–74 *

: 1970–71, 1972–73, 1973–74 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese football match played since 1979 between the winners of the Portuguese League (Primeira Liga) and Portuguese ...

: 1987

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Damas, Vitor 1947 births 2003 deaths Footballers from Lisbon Portuguese footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Primeira Liga players Sporting CP footballers Vitória S.C. players Portimonense S.C. players La Liga players Segunda División players Racing de Santander players Portugal youth international footballers Portugal under-21 international footballers Portugal international footballers UEFA Euro 1984 players 1986 FIFA World Cup players Portuguese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese football managers Primeira Liga managers Sporting CP managers Atlético Clube de Portugal managers Sporting CP B managers Deaths from cancer in Portugal