Vítor Emanuel Cruz da Silva (born 7 January 1984), known simply as Vítor, is a Portuguese former 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 ...

who played as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Born in

Penafiel Penafiel ( or () is a municipality and former bishopric (now a Latin Catholic titular see) in the northern Portuguese district of Porto. Capital of the Tâmega Subregion, the population was 72,265 in 2011, in an area of . History The region ...

, Vítor joined local F.C. Penafiel's youth system in 1993 at the age of nine. He alternated between the second and third divisions in his first eight years as a senior, also representing A.D. Lousada,

U.S.C. Paredes União Sport Clube Paredes is a Portuguese sports club from Paredes. The men's football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normall ...

and C.F. União. Vítor reached the Primeira Liga in the 2011–12 season, signing for

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 ...

. He made his debut in the competition on 14 August 2011, starting in a 2–1 away loss against

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...

. Vítor contributed 29 games – 28 starts – and five goals in

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, helping Paços to a best-ever third position with the subsequent

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

for the

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 competi ...

. Midway through the campaign, he was linked with a move to

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 ...

, with

Jorge Mendes Jorge Paulo Agostinho Mendes (born 7 January 1966) is a Portuguese football agent. He is registered with the Portuguese Football Federation and heads the GestiFute company, founded in 1996. Mendes is among the most influential football agents i ...

reportedly working to secure a transfer. Also in 2013 but in the off-season, Vítor joined another Lisbon side,

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 ...

. On 26 August of the following year he signed with CF Reus Deportiu, moving to the Spaniards alongside teammate Rúben Semedo who arrived on loan. On 31 August 2018, after Reus' registration problems meant that Vítor could not play for the club during the first half of the campaign, he terminated his contract. On 5 March 2019, following a period of trial, he signed with

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. They currently play in the Primera División RFEF – ...

also of the Spanish Segunda División.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vitor Silva 1984 births Living people Footballers from Penafiel Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players F.C. Penafiel players A.D. Lousada players U.S.C. Paredes players C.F. União players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Sporting CP footballers Sporting CP B players C.D. Feirense players Lusitânia F.C. players Segunda División players Segunda División B players CF Reus Deportiu players Deportivo de La Coruña players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain