Wenderson de Arruda Said (born 17 April 1975), commonly known as Wender, is a Brazilian 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 ...

who played as a forward, currently 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 ...

. He spent the vast majority of his professional career in Portugal, amassing Primeira Liga totals of 190 matches and 41 goals over seven seasons and representing in the competition

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

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 ...

and Belenenses. Wender retired in 2013 at the age of 38, after spending four years in Cyprus with three clubs. He later worked as a coach, also in Portugal.

Playing career

Born in Guiratinga, Mato Grosso with a Lebanese grandfather, Wender started playing professionally with Sport Club do Recife, then moved to Portugal with Associação Naval 1º de Maio after signing in 1999 from modest

Esporte Clube Democrata Esporte Clube Democrata, usually known simply as Democrata de Governador Valadares, Democrata-GV, or just Democrata, is a traditional Brazilian football club from Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais state. History Dissatisfied supporters of F ...

. He spent three additional seasons at

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 ...

, being a very important attacking player in the Minho team's Primeira Liga and

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 ...

consolidation. Wender joined

for the 2005–06 campaign. Although he appeared scarcely for the Lisbon side, he scored in both legs of a

tie against

Halmstads BK Halmstads Bollklubb, also known simply as Halmstad () or (especially locally) HBK or Bollklubben, is a Swedish football club located in Halmstad in the county of Halland. The club, formed 7 February 1914 and approved membership in the Swedish ...

( 2–1 away win, 2–3 home loss, subsequent elimination). In January 2006, Wender was involved in a two-way loan deal as

right-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 ...

Abel Abel ''Hábel''; ar, هابيل, Hābīl is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He was the younger brother of Cain, and the younger son of Adam and Eve, the first couple in Biblical history. He was a shepherd ...

moved to Sporting and he returned for a second Braga spell. The loan was made permanent in 2006–07, and he went on to score eight league goals in an eventual fourth-place finish. In July 2008, Wender signed with C.F. Os Belenenses' Brazilian contingent on a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

-long loan. In the following year, after the capital-based team initially dropped down a tier – later reinstated– Braga sold the 34-year-old to

Ermis Aradippou FC Ermis Aradippou () is a Cypriot professional football club based in Aradippou, a settlement on the outskirts of the city of Larnaca. The club was formed in 1958, and currently plays in the Cypriot Second Division. Ermis' greatest success came ...

in the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

, and he remained in that country several years.

Coaching career

In 2016, Wender was appointed under-17 coach of Palmeiras Futebol Clube, Braga's

farm team In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

. In summer 2017, he became the manager of the latter's under-17 squad, being promoted to B-side duties the following 25 January. Wender left the

Estádio Municipal de Braga The Municipal Stadium of Braga ( pt, Estádio Municipal de Braga) is an all-seater football stadium located in Braga, Portugal, and the current home of Sporting Clube de Braga. It has a capacity of 30,286 spectators, making it the seventh large ...

by mutual consent on 18 February 2019. On 8 June 2021, he signed a contract at

Liga Portugal 2 The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Pri ...

club S.C. Covilhã. He was dismissed on 19 October, with the team 11th in

the league ''The League'' is an American sitcom that aired on FX and later FXX from October 29, 2009, to December 9, 2015, for a total of seven seasons. The series, set in Chicago, Illinois, is a semi-improvised comedy show about a fantasy football leagu ...

and having been eliminated from the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

by amateurs FC Serpa.

Personal life

Wender's son, Yan (born 2002), was also a footballer and a forward. He was brought up at Braga.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wender 1975 births Living people Brazilian people of Lebanese descent Sportspeople of Lebanese descent Brazilian men's footballers Footballers from Mato Grosso Men's association football forwards Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Sport Club do Recife players Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas players Ceará Sporting Club players Esporte Clube Democrata players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Associação Naval 1º de Maio players S.C. Braga players Sporting CP footballers C.F. Os Belenenses players Cypriot First Division players Cypriot Second Division players Ermis Aradippou FC players Ethnikos Achna FC players Aris Limassol FC players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Brazilian football managers Liga Portugal 2 managers S.C. Covilhã managers Brazilian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Portugal