Vítor Tiago de Freitas Fernandes (born 11 February 1986), commonly known as Vitinha, is 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 le ...

who plays 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 ...

for Romanian club Metalurgistul Cugir. He spent his entire professional career in Romania and Bulgaria, mainly at the service of Ludogorets in the latter case.

Club career

Born in São Torcato,

Guimarães Guimarães () is a city and municipality located in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga. Its historic town centre has been listed as a UNESCWorld Heritage Sitesince 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved and a ...

, Vitinha only played lower league football in his homeland. In January 2007 he signed with Romanian club

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ), is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, which competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1907 as ''Kolozsvári Vas ...

, and in the ensuing summer he started a series of loans in the latter country, representing in quick succession

CS Otopeni CS Otopeni was a Romanian professional football club from Otopeni, Ilfov County, founded in 2001 and dissolved in 2013. Its greatest performance was that it played for one season in the Liga I in the 2008–09 season. History The club was fo ...

(two spells),

FC Unirea Alba Iulia Clubul Sportiv Municipal Unirea Alba Iulia, commonly known as Unirea Alba Iulia (), is a Romanian professional football club based in Alba Iulia, Alba County, founded in 1924 and currently playing in the Liga III. Among the greatest achieveme ...

and

CS Concordia Chiajna Clubul Sportiv Concordia Chiajna, commonly known as Concordia Chiajna, is a Romanian professional football club based in Chiajna, Ilfov County, which competes in the Liga II. Founded in 1957, the team's best period was between 2011 and 2019, when ...

; he appeared for all the teams in

Liga I The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It is the country's top ...

, scoring two goals in a combined 44 matches. In the 2012 winter

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer win ...

, Vitinha joined PFC Ludogorets Razgrad in the

First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

. He made his competitive debut on 3 March, coming on as a late substitute in a 3–0 home win against

PFC Beroe Stara Zagora Beroe ( bg, Берое) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Stara Zagora, that competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded in 1916 under the name ''Verey ...

. Vitinha was second-choice left-back as the Eagles won five consecutive national championships starting in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, mainly being understudy to veteran Yordan Minev. His maiden appearance in 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 competit ...

took place on 6 August 2013, as he played five minutes in a 1–0 away win over

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; en, Partizan Football Club), sometimes known as Partizan Belgrade in English, is a Serbia, Serbian professional football club (association football), football ...

for the

third qualifying round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

. On 16 June 2017, Vitinha signed with

PFC Cherno More Varna Cherno More ( bg, Черно Море) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in the city of Varna, which currently competes in Bulgaria's primary football competition, the First League. Founded on March 3, 1913, as an assoc ...

also in the Bulgarian top division. He made his debut on 11 August in a 1–1 home draw against

PFC 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 ...

, suffering an

achilles tendon rupture Achilles tendon rupture is when the Achilles tendon, at the back of the ankle, breaks. Symptoms include the sudden onset of sharp pain in the heel. A snapping sound may be heard as the tendon breaks and walking becomes difficult. Rupture typica ...

in the beginning of the second half and going on to be sidelined for several months. Vitinha returned to Romania subsequently, where he represented Unirea and

CF Metalurgistul Cugir Clubul Sportiv Metalurgistul Cugir commonly known as Metalurgistul Cugir, is a Romanian football club based in Cugir, Alba County, currently playing in the Liga III. The club was formerly known as Metalurgistul Cugir. Honours *Liga II **Best fi ...

Club statistics

Honours

Ludogorets *

First Professional Football League The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

: 2011–12,

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 ...

, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17 *

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup ( bg, Купа на България, Kupa na Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tournament ...

: 2011–12, 2013–14 *

Bulgarian Supercup The Bulgarian Supercup ( bg, Суперкупа на България) is the trophy won in a football match held between the football club that has won the Bulgarian first football division in the season that ended in the year of the match and ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

;CSO Cugir *

Liga III The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. Its name was changed from Divizia C to Liga III before the start of the 2006–07 season. It was the first in this format (six series of 18 t ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vitinha 1986 births Living people Footballers from Guimarães Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football defenders Segunda Divisão players Vitória S.C. players Liga I players Liga II players CFR Cluj players CS Otopeni players CSM Unirea Alba Iulia players CS Concordia Chiajna players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players PFC Ludogorets Razgrad II players PFC Ludogorets Razgrad players PFC Cherno More Varna players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Romania Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria