Vinícius Oliveira Franco, or simply Vinícius (born May 16, 1986) is a Brazilian footballer who plays for
Nea Salamina in the
Cypriot First Division as a
central midfielder.
Career
Portugal
Vinícius moved abroad for the first time in 2004 to join Portuguese club
FC Porto B. During his eight-year spell in Portugal he played also 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 ...
,
União da Madeira,
C.D. Aves,
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 ...
,
S.C. Braga and
Moreirense
Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, in Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joa ...
.
APOEL
On 10 July 2013, after eight seasons in the Portuguese leagues, Vinícius signed a two-year contract with
APOEL FC from
Cyprus. He made his official debut on 17 August 2013 against
Apollon Limassol
Apollon Limassol FC ( el, Απόλλων Λεμεσού, ''Apollon Lemesou'') is a Cypriot sports club, based in Limassol. It has football, basketball and volleyball teams. Founded in 1954, Apollon FC currently plays in the Cypriot First Divisi ...
in the
Cypriot Super Cup final, in a match which APOEL won 1–0 and lifted the trophy.
He scored his first official goal for APOEL on 2 September 2013, in his team's 3–0 home win against
Enosis Neon Paralimni for the
Cypriot First Division. During the 2013–14 season, he appeared in all six
2013–14 UEFA Europa League group stage
The group stage of the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League was played from 19 September to 12 December 2013. A total of 48 teams competed in the group stage.
Draw
The draw was held on 30 August 2013, 13:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco. Th ...
matches for APOEL and also managed to win all the titles in Cyprus, the
Cypriot League, the
Cypriot Cup and the
Cypriot Super Cup.
On 20 August 2014, Vinícius scored the equalizer against
Aalborg BK at
Nordjyske Arena, in APOEL's 1–1 first leg draw for the
play-off round of the
UEFA Champions League. On 26 August 2014, he scored again in the return leg against
Aalborg BK, helping his team to win 4–0 and reach the
group stage of the
UEFA Champions League. Vinícius appeared in every
group stage match in APOEL's
2014–15 UEFA Champions League
The 2014–15 UEFA Champions League was the 60th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 23rd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.
The final was pl ...
campaign. On 6 December 2014, Vinícius signed a two-year contract extension with APOEL, running until June 2017.
On 15 September 2016, he scored the equalizer in APOEL's 2–1 home victory over
FC Astana for the
group stage of the
UEFA Europa League. On 19 May 2017, Vinícius signed a two-year contract extension with APOEL, running until June 2019.
Olympiakos Nicosia
On 5 September 2019 he signed for
Olympiakos Nicosia.
Career statistics
Honours
;
APOEL
*
Cypriot First Division:
2013–14,
2014–15,
2015–16,
2016–17
*
Cypriot Cup:
2013–14,
2014–15
*
Cypriot Super Cup: 2013
References
External links
APOEL official profile*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vinicius
1986 births
Living people
Brazilian men's footballers
Men's association football midfielders
Brazilian expatriate men's footballers
Primeira Liga players
Persian Gulf Pro League players
Cypriot First Division players
FC Porto B players
C.D. Nacional players
C.F. União players
C.D. Aves players
S.C. Olhanense players
S.C. Braga players
Moreirense F.C. players
APOEL FC players
Sanat Naft Abadan F.C. players
Olympiakos Nicosia players
Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal
Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Iran
Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus
Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal
Expatriate men's footballers in Iran
Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus
Footballers from Campo Grande