Vítor Manuel Pereira Pontes (born 16 August 1958) 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

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 ...

, and is a

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Playing career

Born in

Leiria Leiria (; cel-x-proto, ɸlāryo) is a city and municipality in the Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat of its own distr ...

, Pontes started his professional career with local União Desportiva. However, during his 18 years as a senior, he played almost exclusively as a backup, only appearing in seven

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, ...

matches during his career – five for

O Elvas C.A.D. O Elvas Clube Alentejano de Desportos is a football club based in Elvas, Alentejo. It was founded in 1947 when the team S.L. Elvas and S.C. Elvas fused. Sport Lisboa e Elvas (founded in 1925) and O Elvas CAD spent several years in the Portuguese ...

in the 1987–88 season, and two for

C.D. Nacional Clube Desportivo Nacional, commonly known as Nacional and sometimes Nacional da Madeira (), is a Portuguese football club based in Funchal, on the island of Madeira. Founded on 8 December 1910, it currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, Portug ...

in two years combined.

Coaching career

After retiring in 1994 at age 36 with lowly A.D. Guarda ( third division), Pontes began immediately working as a goalkeeper coach with his first club, also going to serve there as an assistant manager. He then coached Leiria's first team for two full seasons after a brief interim spell in 2002, subsequently signing 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 thir ...

for the 2005–06 campaign and being one of two managers in a season which ended in top level relegation – the other was

Jaime Pacheco Jaime Moreira Pacheco (born 22 July 1958) is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a central midfielder, and is a current manager. During his career he played, among others, for Porto and Sporting, amassing Primeira Liga totals of 296 m ...

. In 2007, Pontes signed with division two side

Portimonense SC Portimonense Sporting Clube is a Portuguese sports club based in Portimão. Founded on 14 August 1914, it is most notable for its professional football team, which currently plays in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. It a ...

, and remained there two seasons. On 8 September 2011, after two years out of the managerial scene, he returned to active and União de Leiria, replacing fired

Pedro Caixinha Pedro Miguel Faria Caixinha (; born 15 November 1970) is a Portuguese professional football manager, currently in charge of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Red Bull Bragantino. He started coaching in his late twenties, acting an assistant w ...

. His first game in charge was a 1–0 away win against

S.C. Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar () is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth national level, having gained promotion by winning the Aveiro FA First Division 2018/19 ...

, but he left his post after only one more match, however. In September 2012, Pontes took over at FC Chibuto in

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. He moved to the

China League Two The Chinese Football Association Division Two League (Simplified Chinese: 中国足球协会乙级联赛), or China League Two, is the third tier league of the People's Republic of China. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football As ...

in May 2016, signing with Sichuan Longfor FC.

Other ventures

After leaving Portimonense, Pontes worked as a football

pundit A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...

for Sport TV, in the channel's domestic and

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

coverage.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pontes, Vitor 1958 births Living people People from Leiria Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players U.D. Leiria players Vitória S.C. players O Elvas C.A.D. players Louletano D.C. players C.D. Nacional players F.C. Tirsense players Portuguese football managers Primeira Liga managers Liga Portugal 2 managers U.D. Leiria managers Vitória S.C. managers Portimonense S.C. managers Portuguese expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Mozambique Expatriate football managers in China Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Mozambique Sichuan Longfor F.C. managers Footballers from Leiria District