Wilson Migueis Manafá Jancó (born 23 July 1994), known as Manafá, is a Portuguese 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 plays as a winger or a full-back. After making his Primeira Liga debut for

Portimonense Portimonense Sporting Clube is a Portuguese sports club based in Portimão. Founded on 14 August 1914, it is most notable for its professional football team, which currently plays in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. It al ...

at the age of 23 he transferred to

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

for €7 million in 2019, going on to play over 100 games and win two league and

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 ...

doubles.

Club career

Early years

Born in

Oliveira do Bairro Oliveira do Bairro () is a town and a municipality in the district of Aveiro in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 47,729, in an area of 335.27 km2. It had 16,994 eligible voters in 2006. The town itself had a population of 3,077 in 2001. ...

, Aveiro District of Angolan and Bissau-Guinean descent, Manafá finished his development at

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 ...

. He made his professional debut with their reserves in the Segunda Liga, his first appearance in the competition being on 11 August 2013 when he came on as a 43rd-minute substitute in a 1–0 away loss against Atlético Clube de Portugal. In the following years, Manafá alternated between the second and third divisions, representing

S.C. Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar () is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth national level, having gained promotion by winning the Aveiro FA First Division 2018/19 ...

Anadia F.C. Anadia Futebol Clube ''(abbreviated as Anadia FC)'' is a Portuguese football club based in Anadia in the district of Aveiro. Anadia is also a club for field hockey and basketball. Background Anadia FC currently plays in the Campeonato de P ...

and Varzim SC. He scored his first goal in the former competition on 4 April 2015 while at the service of the first club, in a 3–0 away victory over C.D. Trofense.

Portimonense

In late May 2016, Manafá joined Portimonense S.C. on a three-year contract. In his first season, he netted three times in 38 matches to help 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 ...

team return to the Primeira Liga after a six-year absence. Manafá made his debut in the Portuguese top tier on 7 August 2017, playing 16 minutes in a 2–1 home win against Boavista F.C. and providing the

assist Assist or ASSIST may refer to: Sports Several sports have a statistic known as an "assist", generally relating to action by a player leading to a score by another player on their team: *Assist (basketball), a pass by a player that facilitates a ba ...

for Bruno Tabata's winner. He scored his first league goal on 25 August of the following year, also putting one past his own net in a 2–2 draw with C.D. Santa Clara also at the Estádio Municipal de Portimão. During the latter campaign, he was reconverted by manager António Folha to a full-back.

Porto

On 21 January 2019, Manafá signed a four-and-a-half-year deal with FC Porto; the initial transfer fee was €3 million for 60% of the player's economic rights, with the remainder bought for €4 million in 2020–21. He made his debut nine days later in a 3–0 home win over Belenenses SAD, playing the final ten minutes in place of

Éder Militão Éder Gabriel Militão (; born 18 January 1998) is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays for the La Liga club Real Madrid and the Brazil national team. Mainly a centre-back, he can also play as a right-back or defensive midfielder. Mili ...

, and scored his first goal on 4 May in a 4–0 defeat of C.D. Aves also at the

Estádio do Dragão The Estádio do Dragão (; English: Dragon Stadium) is an All-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Porto, Portugal, and the home ground of FC Porto since 2003. It has a seating capacity of 50,033, making it the Lis ...

. His team lost two finals on penalties to Sporting that season: the Taça da Liga in which he was an unused substitute, and the

in which he came off the bench in the 77th minute. Manafá started regularly under

Sérgio Conceição Sérgio Paulo Marceneiro da Conceição (; born 15 November 1974) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who mostly played as a right winger. He is the current manager of Porto. Throughout his career, he played for ...

, but eventually lost his position to João Mário on the right flank and Zaidu Sanusi on the left. On 30 December 2021, shortly after having replaced the former in ''

O Clássico O Clássico ("The Classic") is the name given in football to matches between Portuguese clubs S.L. Benfica and FC Porto. Originally, the term ''O Clássico'' only referred to games played in the league, but now tends to include matches that tak ...

'' against

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 ...

, he suffered a serious injury to his right-knee

patellar tendon The patellar tendon is the distal portion of the common tendon of the quadriceps femoris, which is continued from the patella to the tibial tuberosity. It is also sometimes called the patellar ligament as it forms a bone to bone connection when ...

, subsequently undergoing surgery and missing the rest of the season. Still injured, Manafá was one of four Porto players suspended for the 2022 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira and fined €510 for having made insults towards Benfica during title celebrations. After recovering, he started playing again with the reserves in the second tier.

Career statistics

Honours

Porto * Primeira Liga: 2019–20, 2021–22 *

: 2019–20, 2021–22, 2022–23 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese football match played since 1979 between the winners of the Portuguese League (Primeira Liga) and Portuguese ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Manafa, Wilson 1994 births Living people People from Oliveira do Bairro Portuguese sportspeople of Angolan descent Portuguese sportspeople of Bissau-Guinean descent Footballers from Aveiro District Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football defenders Men's association football wingers Men's association football utility players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Sporting CP B players S.C. Beira-Mar players Anadia F.C. players Varzim S.C. players Portimonense S.C. players FC Porto players FC Porto B players