Vítor Manuel Oliveira (17 November 195328 November 2020) was a Portuguese football

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 ...

and

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 ...

. In a managerial career spanning over 30 years, he won 11 promotions to the Primeira Liga, six as champion.

Playing career

Born in Matosinhos, Oliveira's senior career spanned 13 seasons, ten of which were spent in the Primeira Liga where he appeared in a total of 218 games, scoring 17 goals; he represented Leixões SC, F.C. Famalicão, S.C. Espinho,

S.C. Braga Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese ...

and Portimonense S.C. at that level. In his last year as a professional, he played 23 matches (one goal) for the latter team as they finished fifth and qualified for the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

for the first and only time in their history. Oliveira retired in June 1985, at the age of 31. In the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, he played for

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 Famalicão.

Coaching career

Oliveira was

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the s ...

of Famalicão for their final match of the 1978–79 season, after the exit of Mário Imbelloni. The team lost 2–0 at C.F. Os Belenenses on 17 June, and were consequently relegated from the top level. Afterwards, Oliveira was in charge of Portimonense. His first season yielded the best finish of his entire career as seventh in the 1985–86, and he was dismissed midway through the following campaign. In the following years he worked almost exclusively with

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 ...

in division two, achieving promotion in 1991 as champions and retaining league status the next year. After three full seasons in the top flight with Gil Vicente FC, Oliveira coached several clubs in the first and second divisions, promoting from the latter tier with

U.D. Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria, commonly known as União de Leiria (), is a Portuguese football club based in Leiria, central Portugal. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home matches at Estádio Dr. ...

, Belenenses and Leixões. Early into 2007–08 he replaced fired Paulo Duarte at the helm of Leiria, but only managed to lead his team to three wins in his 21 games (14 losses) as the season ended in top-division relegation. After working with former club Leixões as

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

in 2008–09, Oliveira resumed his career in the second level, with

C.D. Trofense Clube Desportivo Trofense (), commonly known as Trofense, is a Portuguese football club based in Trofa, Portugal. Founded in 1930, it plays in Segunda Liga, holding home games at '' Estádio do Clube Desportivo Trofense'', with a capacity of 5,0 ...

, C.D. Aves, F.C. Arouca and Moreirense FC. On 19 May 2016, he returned to Portimonense nearly three decades after his first spell, on a one-year contract with the aim of winning promotion. After doing so as champions – his fifth consecutive promotion – he decided to remain in the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has it ...

; having taken the team to tenth place on their return to the top flight, he left the ''

Estádio Municipal de Portimão Estádio Municipal de Portimão is the current stadium of Portimonense S.C. It is located in the centre of Portimão in the Algarve, Portugal and was opened in 1937 for local football club Portimonense S.C. Its capacity is 9,544 people. It host ...

'' in May 2018. On 22 May 2018, Oliveira replaced João Henriques as manager of another former side, Paços de Ferreira. In May 2019, having sealed his eleventh promotion and sixth as champion, he left for yet another former employer Gil Vicente – who had been restored to the top tier in a court decision. On 10 August, in their first game of the season, they beat FC Porto 2–1 at home; they finished in tenth, after which he left.

Death and legacy

Oliveira died while going for a walk in his hometown of Matosinhos on 28 November 2020, at the age of 67; early reports, which were later confirmed, stated that he felt unwell and died of a heart attack. He had been working as a pundit for Canal 11 a few weeks prior to the event. Afterwards, the

Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional The Liga Portugal (Portugal League), also known by its acronym LPFP, is a governing body that manages professional football club competitions in Portugal. It was founded in 1978 as Liga Portuguesa dos Clubes de Futebol Profissional and works as an ...

decided to name the monthly and yearly Best Manager Award in his honour.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

Paços Ferreira * Segunda Liga:

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

, 2018–19 União Leiria *Segunda Liga: 1997–98 Leixões *Segunda Liga: 2006–07 Moreirense *Segunda Liga: 2013–14 Portimonense *Segunda Liga: 2016–17

Individual

* Segunda Liga Best Coach: 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2018–19

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oliveira, Vitor 1953 births 2020 deaths Footballers from Matosinhos Portuguese footballers Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Leixões S.C. players U.S.C. Paredes players F.C. Famalicão players S.C. Espinho players S.C. Braga players Portimonense S.C. players Portuguese football managers Primeira Liga managers Liga Portugal 2 managers F.C. Famalicão managers Portimonense S.C. managers F.C. Maia managers F.C. Paços de Ferreira managers Gil Vicente F.C. managers Vitória S.C. managers Académica de Coimbra (football) managers U.D. Leiria managers S.C. Braga managers C.F. Os Belenenses managers Rio Ave F.C. managers Moreirense F.C. managers Leixões S.C. managers C.D. Trofense managers C.D. Aves managers F.C. Arouca managers G.D. Chaves managers